Flowering plant reproduction lab – dissection, pollination, dispersal and germination
BiologyPlant PhysiologyAges 16–17
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Sign in to playA four-part virtual lab. Dissect an insect-pollinated flower, a wind-pollinated flower or a soaked bean seed: lay each layer on a white tile beside a millimetre ruler, count and measure the parts, work out mean lengths and test yourself on their names. Follow a pollen tube to the ovule and double fertilisation, see a self-incompatible plant stop its own pollen, and compare insect and wind pollination. Drop a winged model seed from different heights, with different wing areas and wind speeds, to measure dispersal distance, and set up five germination tubes with or without water, oxygen and light at different temperatures to plot percentage germination against time.
Lesson: Sexual reproduction in flowering plants
What it shows
Flowering plants reproduce sexually: pollen from an anther reaches a stigma, a pollen tube grows down the style into an ovule, and two male nuclei take part in double fertilisation, giving a diploid zygote and a triploid endosperm nucleus. The ovule becomes a seed and the ovary a fruit. This lab covers the whole sequence through practicals: dissecting and measuring flower and seed parts, comparing insect- and wind-pollinated flowers, investigating how wing area, height and wind speed affect seed dispersal, and testing which conditions seeds need to germinate.
How to use
Pick a tab. In Dissect, press Remove next layer or tap the outer parts, then tick Show measurements to check your ruler readings. In Pollination, use Play or Step, change Pollen from and Self-incompatible plant, and press Pollinate 10 flowers. In Seed dispersal, set the sliders and press Drop seed. In Germination, edit the tubes in the table and press Start.
Parameters you can change
- Screen Dissect a flower or seed, Pollination and fertilisation, Seed dispersal, Germination
- Specimen to dissect Insect-pollinated flower, Wind-pollinated flower (grass), Soaked bean seed
- Pollination view Pollen tube and double fertilisation, Insect vs wind pollination
- Pollen from Another plant (cross-pollination), The same plant (self-pollination)
- Self-incompatible plant Yes, No
- Release height 0.5–3 m
- Wing area 0–10 cm²
- Wind speed 0–4 m/s
- Room temperature (tubes A, B, C, E) 10–40 °C
- Days of germination record 3–14 days
Questions to explore
- Which features of a wind-pollinated flower help it release and catch pollen, and why does it make so much pollen?
- Why is fertilisation in flowering plants called double fertilisation, and what does each male nucleus fuse with?
- Which tubes show that seeds need oxygen to germinate, and why is the fridge tube compared with a dark tube?
