Life Cycle of a Flowering Plant

You must be fond of growing attractive flowering plants inside and around your home. They can make your environment refreshing with their fragrance as well as offer a very charming look to the surroundings. You might be curious to know about how the flowering plant grows, isn’t it? The life cycle of a flowering plant comprises several different stages.

Structure of a flowering plant

You will find a large variety of flowering plants with different types, colors, with or without fragrance. Before knowing life cycle of a flowering plant, it is necessary to understand the structure of plant. Roots, stem, leaves, flowers and fruits are the basic parts of any flowering plant. Talking about the root system, main root/ taproot has several branches known as lateral roots and root hairs. Roots grow deep in the ground and their main function is to absorb water and mineral salts from soil. The shoot system includes stem, leaves and flowers. Stem grows above the ground surface and it has several branches. Its main function is to give support, transportation of water and minerals from root to other parts. Leaves play an important role in photosynthesis, which is a crucial process for the growth of plant. Flowers are essential for reproduction as well as they give attractive look to the plant.

Life cycle of a flowering plant

Flowering plants (angiosperms) are included in the vascular plant division,Anthophyta. Flowers and seed-bearing fruits are their reproductive organs. Flowers may be bisexual or unisexual depending upon presence of type of sex organs such as male stamen and female pistil. Species having separate male and female flowers on the same plant are known as monoecious, while species having separate female and male flowers on different plants are called as dioecious. Female pistil consists of style, stigma and ovary with single or many carpels. Male stamen comprises a pollen-bearing anther and stalk or filament.

Some major steps in life cycle of a flowering plant are as follows:

• A dormant seed lying in the ground requires oxygen, water and warmth in order to get developed into flowering plant. Some seeds lying in the ground gets favorable environment and grow into flowering plants, shrubs or trees.
• When seed gets oxygen, water and warmth, it can begin to germinate. The first sign of germination is growth of roots down into soil. Following this, growth of stem starts upwards towards the light.
• Stem continuously grows bigger and bigger and eventually, there is development of leaves and flowers.
• Mature flower contains the parts that enable the plant to reproduce. Pollination is a crucial part in reproduction of plant. Pollen are dispersed through various means such as by insects or wind.
• The next step is fertilization. After landing on a stigma, binucleate pollen grain germinates and develops a pollen tube. Pollen tube grows down through style into the ovary. In ovary, it penetrates the ovule through micropyle (opening in the ovule wall).
• Flowering plants exhibit double fertilization which involves two sperms from pollen tube. One sperm fuses with egg forming a diploid zygote, while another combines with two polar nuclei to develop the triploid endosperm.
• The zygote gets developed into embryo and nutritive tissue surrounding the embryo is formed from the endosperm. During this process, ovule increases in size becoming a mature seed. Outer two layers of ovule form the seed coat.
• The ripened ovary is known as a fruit, which may be dry or fleshy. When the fruit gets dried and bursts open releasing seeds, they are dispersed by insects, animals, birds or by wind.
• The fertilized seeds fall on the ground and there is a start of same life cycle.