Where Does Fertilization Take Place in Plants | Fertilization in Flowering Plants

If you want to know Where Does Fertilization Take Place in Plants then we have all the details and information that will help you understand it better!

Wondering Where Does Fertilization Take Place in Plants?  Well, the straight answer to that question is in the ovary of a female flower. But there is more to it! Let’s have a look at it in detail.

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Types of Plants with Unique Flowering Structures

• Bisexual Plants: Plants in which the female and male parts are present on the same flower, known as a bisexual flower.
• Monoecious Plants- Different female and male flowers appear on the same plant.
• Dioecious Plants- Either male or female flowers appear on the plant. That is, male and female flowers appear on two different plants.

Difference Between Pollination and Fertilization

Before fertilization, pollination occurs.

• In the pollination process, the pollen grains from the male flowers are transferred to the female flowers by bees, birds, or other insects.
• In fertilization, female and male gametes or genetic material are fused to form a diploid zygote. Complete fertilization takes place within the zygote that develops into a fruit and seed.
• Pollination takes place right before fertilization and occurs from anthers of stamens to the stigma of the ovary.
• Fertilization is a fusion of female and male gametes.

Where Does Fertilization Take Place in Plants?

The female part of the flower is termed the pistil and it includes three main parts – stigma, style, and ovary. Stigma is found on the top of the pistil and is connected to the ovary via a tube-like structure called style. The ovary is the base of the pistil that plays an imperative role in the fertilization procedure.

Talking about the male flower, it is termed as the stamen. This stamen consists of two parts that are anther and filament. The major role of the anther is to produce pollens, while the filament is a supporting part of the anther.

Pollination takes place when the pollen from the male flower fertilizes the ovule present in the female flower. For this pollination, bees, moths, and wind play a vital role in pollen transfer. Moreover, the stigma has a sticky substance that is used for collecting and trapping the pollen.

Pollination

Pollination is the unintended result of a pollinator’s activity on a flower. The pollinator comes around the flower just for eating or collecting the pollen or sips the nectar from the flower. While staying busy in its activity, the tiny pollen grains attach to all over its body. When the pollinator visits another flower, the attached pollen eventually falls off on the flower’s stigma that results in successful reproduction and further fertilization of the flower.

The mode of pollination differs in different flowers and plants. For instance, colorful and fragrant plants attract insects, like bees, flies, and butterflies, which help in transferring pollen from male to female flowers.

Some colorful blooms, without any strong fragrance, get pollinated via birds. White fragrant flowers like Arabian jasmine get pollinated during the nighttime by bats and moths, as they unfurl and exude pleasing fragrances during the night only. On the contrary, some aquatic flowers are pollinated with the help of wind and water.

Fertilization Process

In flowers, the pollen grain moves down to the ovary via a tube pathway known as style.  The pollen tube opens into an ovule and the male nucleus (gamete) fuses with the egg nucleus to form a diploid zygote. This zygote later swells up and develops into a fruit.

Fertilized ovules become seeds that may grow into a new plant. As the ovary becomes the fruit of a plant, therefore poor pollination leads to futile vegetable or fruit growth.