Plants of all species have evolutionalised diverse internal structures that help it to reproduce in a new environment. Some species are dependent on water and others on wind and animals to spread their pollen/sperm to an egg. Whatever category one particular species falls in, its structures are in direct relationship to its success in colonising a new environment. .
This report will look at two different species of plants that function differently to each other. I will show reasons as to why these plants go about reproducing in diverse ways. .
The scope of my essay will target ferns and flowering plants, because they have adapted different internal structures to each other and can sometimes co-exist in the same environment.
Ferns are dependent on water. This means that the sexual part of their life-style is restricted to water, because they retain swimming sperm. A direct result of this limits their potential to colonise new environments. ie Environments where water is not present. The difference between ferns and flowering plants is, flowering plants are capable of exploiting much more habitats, due to them not being dependent on water for reproduction. Ferns reproduce sexually. There's a big difference between this and a-sexual reproduction carried out by the flowering plants. Sexual reproduction involves an alternation of generations. A "gametophyte" stage and a "sporophyte" stage. Whereas a-sexual reproduction involves just a plant with both female and male sex organs, for example a flower. .
The fern is said to begin reproduction from a mature "diploid sporophyte", meaning it is of an age where it has double the number of chromosomes and produces haploid spores by meiosis. Wind disperses the spores to new areas when the spore capsules dry out, but many will die if they are not embedded in wet conditions. If the area the spore lands in is wet, then it will germinate and begin growing into a gametophyte.
