Jason Liebson

AP Biology Plant Free Response Questions

1. Discuss the patterns of sexual reproduction in plants. Compare and

contrast reproduction in nonvascular plants with that in flowering plants.
Include the following topics in your discussion:
(a) alteration of generations
(b) mechanisms that bring female and male gametes together
(c) mechanisms that disperse offspring to new locations

(a) Bryophytes have both gametophyte and sporophyte stages. The

gametophytes are larger and live longer compared to sporophytes in both
male and female forms.
(b) In nonvascular plants, sperm travels through water into the archegonia
where the sperm fertilizes the egg, causing self-pollination. In flowering
plants, pollen, which contains the male gametes, can be transferred to
other plants. The pollen then is brought into the ovary through the pollen
tube. The gametes are then brought into the ovules.
(c) Sporangium create up to 50 million spores each in nonvascular plants.
The peristome then releases the spores into the air in a gradual release.
The peristome has a toothlike structure to prevent too many spores from
leaving at once. Seeds that are created in flowering plants have
adaptations that allow them to be more widespread, mainly involving fruit.
The fruit are created as housing units for the seeds and are transported
by physical adaptations including wing-like structures and spiny fruit that
hitchhike.

2. Flowering plants have evolved various strategies for fertilization.

(a) Describe the process of fertilization in flowering plants.
(b) Discuss TWO mechanisms of pollen transfer and the
adaptations that facilitate each mechanism.

Some species of flowering plants have evolved mechanisms to

prevent self-fertilization.
(c) Discuss an evolutionary advantage of preventing self-
fertilization.
(d) Describe TWO mechanisms that prevent self-fertilization.

(a) In flowering plants, male and female gametophytes develop within the
anthers (male) and ovules (female). Wind, water, or animals carry a
pollen grain (containing a male gametophyte) to a female gametophyte (in
the ovule) this is pollination. Fertilization takes place in each ovule in
the ovary. The fertilized ovules develop into seeds as the ovary becomes
a fruit.
(b) One mechanism plants use to transfer pollen is by insects and animals.
The plants have adapted to release insect and/or animal attracting scents,
are brightly colored, and/or are shaped like the insects they hope to
attract. Another mechanism plants use is wind. Plants that use wind as a
pollinating agent release large quantities of pollen at a time (as there is no
guarentee of pollinating success).
(c) An evolutionary advantage of preventing self-fertilization is genetic
diversity (there is a greater likelihood that some offspring will survive an
environmental change and/or diseases).
(d) Dioecious species have either staminate or carpellate flowers, so they
cant self-fertilize. Another mechanism that prevents self-fertilization is
colled self-incompatibility (a plant rejects its own pollen and that of its
close relatives). If its own pollen lands on the stigma of a flower on the
same plant then a biochemical block prevents the pollen from fertilizing an
egg.