Roland-Story High School
Agriculture Technology Class
Lesson 7.2 --Pollination and Dispersion
Preface:
Reproductive anatomy for plants introduced in Lesson 4.5 Flower Power continues in Lesson 7.1
Plant Reproduction. Students will build on previous knowledge related to flower parts to assist
their learning about the mechanics of sexual reproduction in plants, beginning pollen transfer
from the anther to the stigma. Fertilized eggs develop into seeds protected by seed-bearing
structures and transported to a new area to germinate and grow into new plants.
Plants can bear any one of many different types of seed-bearing structures. People have classified
fruits and nuts by their physical features and find value in the fleshy covering or meaty center.
While many people depend on fruit as a food source, it has far greater implications for life or
death of a plant species.
Fruit attracts more than just human consumers; it is responsible for luring animals and harnessing
the wind to disperse ripened seeds away from the parent plant where the chance of survival is
greater. However, what happens when no animals or natural forces are available for a plant
species to distribute its seeds?
In this lesson, students explore the codependency among plants, animals, and their environment.
Students identify pollination agents, calculate biotic potential, and develop a dichotomous key to
classify seed-bearing structures.
Concepts:
1. Flower pollination often requires natural agents, such as wind, water, insects, and vertebrates.
2. Plants use seeds to multiply species exponentially over time.
3. Identification and classification of plant species often relies on special structures that protect and
support seeds.
4. Plants require methods of seed dispersal to ensure their survival in nature.
Essential Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
How does pollination occur in nature?
How is biotic potential determined?
How does the use of mathematics aid in understanding the biotic potential of plants?
What is the purpose of fruit on a plant?
How are fruits identified or classified based on anatomical features?
Why do some plants produce more seeds than other plants?
Why is it important for plants to have a method to disperse seeds?
How does seed dispersal have an effect on plant and animal interactions?
Key Terms:
Achene
Anemophily
Berry
Biotic potential
Cantharophily
Carpel
Chiropterophily
Cross pollination
Drupe
Endocarp
Epicarp
Exocarp
Fertilization
Fruit
Grain
Hydrophily
Hymenopterophily
Mesocarp
Myophily
Myrmecophily
Nectar
Nut
Ornithophily
Ovary
Pericarp
Pepo
Phalaenophily
Pod
Pollen
Pollination
Pome
Psychophily
Samara
Self-pollination
Sexual reproduction
Shell