{"id":792,"date":"2014-02-06T11:55:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T16:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nybg.org\/science-talk\/?p=792"},"modified":"2014-02-06T12:37:10","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T17:37:10","slug":"of-birds-bees-reproducing-symplocos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2014\/02\/of-birds-bees-reproducing-symplocos\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Birds & Bees: Reproducing Symplocos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawrence M. Kelly, Ph.D.<\/a>, is Director of Graduate Studies at The New York Botanical Garden<\/a>. One of his research interests is the sweetleaf family of plants, which includes the species explained below.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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A Symplocos<\/em> flower, cut open to show the long style surrounded by stamens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The series of events\u00a0by which flowering plants reproduce themselves is amazingly complicated and precise. One of the most\u00a0critical processes\u00a0occurs just after pollination, when pollen grains\u00a0land on or are delivered by a bee or another pollinator to the\u00a0surface of the stigma, one of the female reproductive organs\u00a0within the flower.<\/p>\n

The pollen grains begin to grow, or germinate. These germinating pollen grains produce\u00a0tubes that grow through the tissue of the style and into the plant’s ovary. The sperm cells within the tubes\u00a0will be delivered into the ovule\u2014the plant equivalent of an unfertilized egg\u2014so that fertilization and sexual reproduction can occur. That leads to seeds, the basis for the next generation of a plant species.<\/p>\n

Fluorescence microscopy, one\u00a0of the research techniques available to\u00a0scientists at The New York Botanical Garden,\u00a0allows us to see the path of the pollen tubes as they grow through the surface of the stigma and\u00a0into the style, where the ovule awaits. In this species of Symplocos\u2014<\/em>a genus of of about 250 related plant species native to Asia, Australia, and the Americas\u2014we can see the germinating pollen grains growing from the lobes below the top of the style.
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Lawrence M. Kelly, Ph.D., is Director of Graduate Studies at The New York Botanical Garden. One of his research interests is the sweetleaf family of plants, which includes the species explained below. The series of events\u00a0by which flowering plants reproduce themselves is amazingly complicated and precise. One of the most\u00a0critical processes\u00a0occurs just after pollination, when… <\/p>\n

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