SCIENCE TASK TWO The life cycle of a flowering plant

Do Now Activity

Apple tree

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Can you name a different plant/ flower beginning with each letter of the alphabet? Maybe give yourself two minutes and see how many you can think of. The first letter has been done for you.

Life Cycle of a Flowering Plant

The main stages of the life cycle of a flowering plant are:

1Germination

2Growing

and

flowering

3Pollination

4Fertilisation

and seed

formation

5Seed

dispersal

The life cycle of a flowering plant shows the changes that happen to the

plant over the course of its lifetime.

Watch this video: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/zgqyrdm(Bitesize: The lifecycle of a plant)

Germination

When a seed settles in suitable ground, it breaks open and the embryo starts to grow. This part of the process is called ‘germination’.

The seed will only germinate, however, if the soil is healthy, warm enough and if there is access to water.

Growing and Flowering

Once the seed has germinated the roots grow down into the ground, taking up water and nutrients, and a shoot grows up through the soil towards the sky.The shoot will develop into a stem, transporting water and minerals from the roots up to the rest of the plant. The stem will also eventually support leaves to make food for the plant through a process known as photosynthesis. The plant will continue to grow until it is mature and ready to reproduce again. And what next? You guessed it…the new plant produces beautiful flowers and the cycle starts all over again.

Pollination

The first stage of reproduction in flowering plants is called ‘pollination‘.

Pollination occurs when pollen from the anther is transferred to the stigma, often by an insect.

If pollen moves from the anther to the stigma on the same flower (or a flower on the same plant), it is called ‘self-

pollination’. If the pollen is transferred from the anther to the stigma on another plant, it’s called ‘cross-pollination’.

There are two main ways that flowers are pollinated —by insects and by the wind. Insect pollinated flowers and wind

pollinated flowers are adapted differently.

Fertilisation and Seed Formation

Once the pollen grain lands on the stigma of the same species of plant, a pollen tube grows down from the grain, through the style and into the ovary.Then, male ‘gametes’ (reproductive cells) pass from the pollen grain along the tube to the ovary, where they join with female gametes in the ‘ovules‘. This process is called ‘fertilisation’.Once an ovule has been fertilised by the pollen, it develops into a seed, containing an embryo (a young root and shoot) and a food store that will allow the young plant to start to grow at a later stage of the life cycle.The ovary wall then develops into a fruit or a pod to protect the seed.

Seed Dispersal

Once the seeds are fully formed,

the plant needs to disperse them.

This means that the plant needs

to move or transport the seeds

away from the parent plant in

some way so that they don't all try

to grow in the same place.

There are lots of different ways

that seeds can be dispersed.

• Animals: lots of plants use their animal buddies to help them spread their seeds. When animals or birds guzzle up the plant’s yummy fruit, the seeds pass through their bodies undigested and pop out in their poop.

• Some fruits have little hooks on their skin that attach the fur of passing animals, allowing them to be carried away from the parent plant.

• Wind: other plants have specially adapted seeds that are dispersed by the wind. One such plant is the dandelion, which has feathery parachutes attached to its seeds, so they can drift through the air.

• Water: many plants that grow in or near water produce light seeds that fall on the water, float and get carried away.

• Exploding pods: there are some plants that are able to spread their seeds all by themselves! They have exploding pods that burst open when ripe, flinging the seeds into the air!

Extra information

• https://www.ducksters.com/science/biology/flowering_plants.php

• https://www.smore.com/sb06q-life-cycle-of-a-flowering-plant

Activity: Flow map

Complete a flow map to show the

different stages of a flowering plant

life cycle. What are the different stages

of the life cycle?

What happens at each stage?

Can you put the different stages in the

correct order?

Extension: Draw a picture of each

different stage.

Exit ticket

•Write a ridiculous statement about plants that would be virtually impossible. Now try and prove it could happen.