Blog Post #7 - Maddie Gong

In these past few weeks, my group and I have been learning about the reproductive process in Brassica Oleracea plants. First, we researched the functions of all the main, important parts of the flower. The two main reproductive organs are the stamen (male) and pistil (female). On the end of a stamen are the anthers. The anthers are responsible for producing pollen through meiosis. Reproduction can't take place unless pollen travels through the plants. So, the pollen starts to move its way towards the stigma. Here, the pollen sticks onto the stigma. The stigma is the end of the pistil, or the female reproductive organ. Once the pollen reaches the stigma, it's taken through the pistil to the ovary. When it's in the ovary, the pollen germinates the ovules and the reproduction cycle begins.

This is a picture of the flower my partner and I chose from the garden. This is what a brassica flower looks like. Here you can see some of the main parts of the flower including the petals, stigma, anthers and the stamen.

We removed all of the petals on the flower to see the parts clearly. Here's a close picture of the stamen and anthers. The stamen is the green stem which is the male reproductive organ. The anther is the part in which pollen is created during Meiosis. Eventually, the pollen created on the anthers will reach the female reproductive organ and the plant can reproduce. The filament is the long stalk like thing on the male reproductive organ. 

 Here is a photo of the female reproductive organs. The female parts consist of the pistil. The larger end of the pistil is known as the stigma. The stigma is the sticky part of the stem where the pollen from the stamen sticks onto and gets germinated. This is how the reproductive cycle starts.

After examining the male and female parts, we removed all of the parts until we got to the insides. This small, skinny green bean looking part is the ovary. We sliced open the ovary and inside saw the ovules. The ovules are the unfertilized plants that will eventually start to reproduce. The pollen from the stamen will eventually reach the ovary and start the reproductive cycle.

Extra : We took the anthers and tapped some pollen onto a wet glass slide. We placed it under a compound light microscope and this is a close up view of it. 

Whitley Moody: Blog Post #7

          My Story of the Seed group and I have been examining the reproductive process in the flowers created on one of the species of Brassica Oleracea plants.  We have researched how the parts of the plant are being fertilized in order to reproduce.  We learned of a few important reproductive organs in our flowers.  The stamen is the male reproductive organ and the pistil is the female reproductive organ.  It all starts at the stamen of the flower.  At the end of the stamen is an anther.  On the anther pollen is created through Meiosis.  In order for reproduction to happen, the pollen made on the anther must find its way to the stigma.  The stigma is the sticky end to the pistil which is the female reproductive organ of the flower.  After the pollen has reached the stigma it is taken through the stalk of the pistil to the ovary at the base of the pistil.  In the ovary the pollen germinates the ovules where the reproduction process begins.

Here is a picture of the whole flower we took from a species of Brassica Oleracea.  You can see all petals, the anthers, the stamen, the stigma, and the top of the pistil.  The ovary is hidden because it is at the bottom of the pistil(female reproductive organ). 

This is a close up photo of the male reproductive anatomy of the flower.   This part of the flower is called the stamen.  The end of the stalk is called an anther.  The anther is where the pollen is created through Meiosis.  The pollen created on the end of the anther is the pollen that will eventually reach the female organ of the plant so that the plant can reproduce.  The long stalk on the male reproductive organ is called the filament.

This is a close up of the female reproductive anatomy of the flower.   This is called the pistil.  As seen in the photo, the end of the pistil is larger than the rest of the stalk.  That part is the stigma. The stigma is sticky.  This allows the pollen from the stamen (male reproductive anatomy of the flower) to stick where it can germinate the female reproductive organ which starts the reproductive cycle.  There are many ways for the pollen to reach the stigma.  For example, wind can blow the pollen from the stamen to the stigma. 

Here is a close up of the flower that has been completely stripped of all parts except the ovary.  I have opened up the ovary to get a clear view of the ovules.  The ovules are the tiny unfertilized green pea-like shapes.  This is where the pollen from the stamen will eventually go to start the reproductive process.

EXTRA:

This is a magnified view of the pollen taken from one of the anthers.  Done using a wet mount slide of pollen and a compound light microscope.

Blog Post #7 -Annika Gordon

These are the flowers I picked to view under the microscope to look at the parts of a flower up close. Out of these flowers my partner, Christina, and I chose just one, but ended up needing several as we messed several times. We made sure to pick flowers with larger anthers and pistils so that we would be able to see all the different parts more clearly than on small anthers and stigmas.

This image is of the anthers, which is part of the stamen, the male anatomy of a flower. It surrounds the pistils showing that this particular flower is both male and female, whereas some are just male or just female. The anthers grow at the end of stamen and consist of a sac which produces and releases pollen. This pollen is then picked up by birds, bees, and other insects on their bellies and feet when they land and transferred to the stigma of neighboring flowers.

This picture is of the the female anatomy of the flower, the carpel also know as the pistil, which contains the stigma, style, and ovary. The stigma is the sticky top which pollen grains attach to, and could be considered the landing zone for these pollen grains. The style is a long stalk which connects the stigma and ovary allowing the pollen that lands on the stigma to transfer sperm cells down into the ovary. In the ovary ovules are produced which when fertilized by sperm cells eventually become seed allowing for the flower species to continue living.

These are images of the inside of the pistil, more specifically the inside of the ovary which was cut in half so we could understand what was inside. The little round balls, more obvious in picture two, are unfertilized ovules. When they aren't underneath a microscope, they are smaller than even a grain of rice, but are the reason plants can reproduce. Without ovules the sperm cells from the pollen wouldn't have anything to fertilize, marking the end of that plant species life.

This image shows a very close up view of the pollen found on the anthers of our flowers which is used as a "capsule" for sperm cells. Pollen is grown on the anthers of plants and when picked up by wind or insects are transferred to the stigma of another plant. This picture is taken from a light microscope where we zoomed in so much you could see little ridges all over in, but the picture didn't capture them, so in reality pollen is actually smaller than even a grain of sand, yet it might just hold more importance.

Katie Inman Blog Post #7

This is the flower that my partner and I collected from the garden. It is from the brassica family and is a mature flower. Plants reproduce in a similar way that humans do, with male and female reproductive organs. Although not all plants are just male or female, some are both. In this brassica flower, it is both male and female which means it includes both genders gametes.

 These four pictures are showing anthers(yellow) which are connected to the stamen(green). Inside of the anthers are mircosporangium. Microsporangium is a sporangium which gives out spores that then become the male gametophytes. When the plant begins to flower, the microsporangia make microsporocyte, which then splits into 4 more cells through meiosis. Then through mitosis the microspores become pollen grains.  The pollen grains are the male gametophytes and when matured enough they become less attached to the anthers and are ready to continue in fertilizing the the female gametophytes.

 This picture is showing the pistil and at the top is  stigma which is the entrance for the pollen grain to the ovary. When the pollen grain or sperm germinate on the stigma it absorbs water and nutrients, opening a small pollen tube that goes through the style and into the ovary. Once the sperm reaches the ovaries it fertilizes the ovule creating diploid cell with a set of chromosomes from the mother(egg) and father(pollen)

Here we see the eggs or ovules inside the ovary. This is before they are fertilized. When they become fertilized the ovule becomes a zygote. A seed then develops from each ovule. In each seed their is a new sporophyte or embryo covered by a layer of tissues and a supply of food.  Then when the ovary walls become denser and the fruit that comes from the particular plant begins to form around the seed. When given the proper conditions the seed will begin to grow or germinate. It will begin to use photosynthesis once ready and until then it uses the food supply. After this it has completed the circle of life and the process will repeat over and over again

EXTRA: Using a compound microscope my partner and I took a picture of the male gametophytes/sperm/pollen.