The Story of the Seed

A Matter of Selection  Since the start of the school year, my team and I have had the eye-opening opportunity to plant and observe our very own Brassica oleracea, or broccoli, plants in the garden. Throughout the experience with our own plant, we have also been able to witness many other types of Brassica oleracea grow and mature to develop different traits at every stage of their life cycles. Despite the fact that all 4 types of plants growing in the garden (broccoli, cabbage, kale and cauliflower) share 99% of the same DNA, upon close observation and data collection it is clear that, along with the obvious similarities, there are also notable differences and variation present among the organisms.  During our investigation, we discovered that the characteristic of the plants that exhibited the most variation (greatest number of different forms) was the leaf shape and size. Some of the plant leaves were round and floppy, while others were more ridged with a lot of in...

The four types of plants in the garden are cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and our broccoli. These plants shared some similarities since they are from the same common ancestor, but in my opinion, the part of the plant with the most variation is the shape of the leaves. Each type of plant had a different shape of leaf. The broccoli had dark, cool-green, boat-shaped leaves. The cauliflower had leaves with ruffle-like edges but was flatter than the broccoli and cabbage leaves. Those variations had leaves that caved towards the center vein. The kale leaves were even more abnormal looking and ruffed like the cauliflower but the sides were not straight. The edge of the leave curved in and out like a rounded spike. The cabbage leaves were the most simple but also probably the most different from the rest of the leaves. The cabbage leaves were sturdier and just round. The edges didn't really have any ruffles or purposeful indentation. The part of the plant that had the greatest range of varia...

Angiosperms are plants that have flowers and produce seeds. Angiosperms are found everywhere, and our Brassica Oleracea is an example of one! This species is just one of 300,000 species that falls under this category. Angiosperms are unique because of the way they reproduce. There are both male and female parts, the male part is called the stamen, and the female part is called the carpel/pistil. The stamen is made up of the anthers (the part that creates pollen) and the filament (the part that holds up the anther). The carpel/pistil is made up of the stigma, style, and ovary. The stigma is the sticky part on top if the long tube called the style, which leads to the ovary. The ovary is where the ovules or female egg cells are held. Other important parts of flowers are petals, even though they are not sexual. Petals help attract pollinators, such as bees, birds, and butterflies, so pollen can be spread from plant to plant. This aids the process of fertilization. In fact, without pollinat...

Angiosperms are all around the world, nearly every plant is an angiosperm. Angiosperms are defined as plants that have flowers and produce seeds. Broccoli plants are just one species of the 300,000 species classified as angiosperms. Angiosperms reproduce sexually. The pistil (female) and the stamen (male) make up the reproductive parts of the broccoli flower. The pistil includes the stigma, style, and ovary. The stigma is where pollen germinates, the style supports the stigma and allows pollen to travel to the ovary, and the ovary contains ovules that can be fertilized to create an embryo. The stamen includes anthers and filaments. Anthers create pollen, and filaments support the anthers. Though nonsexual, petals are also an important part of flowers. Petals function as an attraction for pollinators. Pollinators include bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies. In cross pollination, pollinators transfer pollen from one plant to another. This process is called pollination. Pollen contains ma...

How do flowering plants (angiosperms) like our  Brassica oleracea  plants reproduce? Well, we know that humans reproduce sexually, after all that is how we are all here and how I am writing this blog post right now. But sexual reproduction isn't just for people and animals. Flowering angiosperm plants like our broccoli reproduce this way too! An angiosperm is a plant that has flowers and produces seeds enclosed within a carpel. Just like people, these plants have male and female reproductive organs. The male part is called the stamen and the female part is called the carpel/pistil. The stamen contains the filament, which is the long, slender stalk, and the anther, which is at the top of the filament and is where pollen grains (sperm) are produced. The carpel is composed of an ovary, a style, and a stigma. Inside the ovary, there are one or more ovules that act kind of like a woman's eggs and grow into a seed when fertilized. Using these parts, plants reproduce through the tran...

Flowering plants like our broccoli reproduce in a very sophisticated way. This system has been very effective, as flowering plants make up the majority of species and are in most of the terrestrial world. The way sexual plant reproduction works is based around the stamen (image 3) and the carpel (image 4) of the plant. The stamen is the male part of the plant, and the carpel, also sometimes called the pistil, is the female part. The stamen consists of the filaments and the anthers. The anthers are the semi-triangular shape on the end of the filament, which is like a tiny stem. The "cone" of the anther is where all the gametophytes (pollen) comes from. The carpel is the female part of the plant. It is made of 3 main parts the stigma, on the tip, the ovary, at the base, which holds the ovules, and the style, connecting the ovary and stigma. The process works because animals, insects, and the wind carry the pollen to the stigma, from the anthers. The pollen sticks to...

Our broccoli plant has gotten bigger and bigger each time we check on it. This means it is increasing its biomass. For a plant to get bigger, it needs to go through photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a process in which sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water are taken into a plant to produce glucose (and oxygen as a byproduct). Glucose is a simple sugar which is also a carbohydrate. Photosynthesis produces NADPH (Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate in the first part of the process (light independent reactions) to give energy to run the second part (Calvin Cycle), while cellular respiration produces ATP (Adenosine triphosphate). NADPH and ATP both provide energy for the cell to replicate in cell division. This is a process in which the cells of the plant reproduce, creating two cells instead of one. Cell division happens over and over, creating more biomass. Phosphoglycerate kinase (PKG) and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) are both important enzymes for the ...