Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that does not involve the fusion of gametes or change in the number of chromosomes. The offspring that arise by asexual reproduction from either unicellular or multicellular organisms inherit the full set of genes of their single parent. Asexual reproduction is the primary form of reproduction for single-celled organisms such as archaea and bacteria. Many eukaryotic organisms including plants, animals, and fungi can also reproduce asexually. In vertebrates, the most common form of asexual reproduction is parthenogenesis, which is typically used as an alternative to sexual reproduction in times when reproductive opportunities are limited.
Reproduction is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. Reproduction is a fundamental feature of all known life; each individual organism exists as the result of reproduction. There are two forms of reproduction: asexual and sexual.
Plant reproductive morphology is the study of the physical form and structure of those parts of plants directly or indirectly concerned with sexual reproduction.
Ilex verticillata, the winterberry, is a species of holly native to eastern North America in the United States and southeast Canada, from Newfoundland west to Ontario and Minnesota, and south to Alabama.
Plant reproduction is the production of new offspring in plants, which can be accomplished by sexual or asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction produces offspring by the fusion of gametes, resulting in offspring genetically different from either parent. Asexual reproduction produces new individuals without the fusion of gametes, resulting in clonal plants that are genetically identical to the parent plant and each other, unless mutations occur.
Bensoniella is a monotypic genus of plants in the saxifrage family containing the single species Bensoniella oregona, which is known by the common name Oregon bensoniella, or simply bensoniella. This plant is endemic to the Klamath Mountains of northern California and southern Oregon. This is a plant of the wet forest understory and meadows above 1000 meters in elevation. It is a perennial herb which grows from a rhizome and bears rounded to heart-shaped lobed leaves with woolly petioles and tall, thin racemes of flowers. Each flower is white with bright yellow-pink anthers. The plant produces capsules of abundant seeds but also reproduces vegetatively. When it does reproduce sexually, it often self-pollinates. Bensoniella is not endangered but it is a species of some concern for several reasons, including lack of genetic diversity in part due to its habit of self-pollination and asexual reproduction, its relatively narrow tolerance of habitats, its small range of distribution, habitat destruction due to logging, grazing, and road-building, and erosion. The plant was first collected in 1916 by John Hunter Thompson.
Layia carnosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name beach tidytips, or beach layia. It is endemic to California, where it lives in beach habitat. It is known from several areas of mostly fragmented coastal habitat, and it was listed as an endangered species in California. On March 31, 2022, the category was changed from endangered species to threatened species by the US Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service.
Sexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that involves a complex life cycle in which a gamete with a single set of chromosomes (haploid) combines with another to produce a zygote that develops into an organism composed of cells with two sets of chromosomes (diploid). Sexual reproduction is the most common life cycle in multicellular eukaryotes, such as animals, fungi and plants. Sexual reproduction does not occur in prokaryotes, but they have processes with similar effects such as bacterial conjugation, transformation and transduction, which may have been precursors to sexual reproduction in early eukaryotes.
Enhalus is a monotypic genus of marine flowering plants. The sole species is Enhalus acoroides. Enhalus is a large seagrass native to coastal waters of the tropical Indian and Western Pacific Oceans. It is the only species of seagrass that does aerial surface pollination in which the pollen and the styles remain dry. Enhalus is surface pollinated with male flowers that detach from the plant to float on the surface until they reach a female flower where pollination can occur. Enhalus acoroides is considered a slow-growing, "climax" species.
Quercus havardii is a deciduous, low-growing, thicket-forming shrub that occupies some two million to three million hectares in the southern Great Plains of North America. Clones may reach hundreds to thousands of years old, although aboveground stems typically live only 11 to 15 years. Shinnery oak stems are usually 1 to 2 metres tall and codominate the plant community with mid- and tall-grasses, which are usually taller than the oaks.
Thalassia testudinum, commonly known as turtlegrass, is a species of marine seagrass. It forms meadows in shallow sandy or muddy locations in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Turtle grass and other seagrasses form meadows which are important habitats and feeding grounds. The grass is eaten by turtles and herbivorous fish, supports many epiphytes, and provides habitat for juvenile fish and many invertebrate taxa.
Adenanthos eyrei is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. Restricted to a single cliff-top dune system on the remote south coast of Western Australia, it is listed as rare and endangered. It was discovered by E. Charles Nelson in 1973, and formally described and named in 1978.
Asclepias welshii is a rare species of milkweed known by the common name Welsh's milkweed. It is native to southern Utah and northern Arizona, where there are four known occurrences remaining. Most of the plants occur in Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, where the habitat has been degraded in many areas by off-road vehicle use. It is a federally listed threatened species of the United States.
Cape Flats Dune Strandveld is an endangered vegetation type. This is a unique type of Cape Strandveld that is endemic to the coastal areas around Cape Town, including the Cape Flats.
Poa fendleriana is a species of grass known by the common name muttongrass. It is native to western North America, where its distribution extends from western Canada to northern Mexico.
Zostera muelleri is a southern hemisphere temperate species of seagrass native to the seacoasts of South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. and New Zealand. Today, Zostera muelleri can be found in regions of Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea, as well as areas of the eastern Indian Ocean, and the southwest and western central Pacific Ocean. Zostera muelleri is a marine angiosperm, and is commonly referred to as eelgrass or garweed. It is a fast growing and readily colonizing species that serves as a feeding ground for wading birds and aquatic animals, and a breeding ground for juvenile fish and shrimp species.
The monocots are one of the two major groups of flowering plants, the other being the dicots. In order to reproduce they utilize various strategies such as employing forms of asexual reproduction, restricting which individuals they are sexually compatible with, or influencing how they are pollinated. Nearly all reproductive strategies that evolved in the dicots have independently evolved in monocots as well. Despite these similarities and their close relatedness, monocots and dicots have distinct traits in their reproductive biologies.
Acacia carneorum, also referred to as purple-wood wattle, needle wattle, dead finish or by its former scientific name, Acacia carnei, is a plant species in the genus Acacia.
Leucadendron sheilae, the Lokenberg conebush, is a flower-bearing shrub that belongs to the genus Leucadendron and forms part of the fynbos, a South African biogeographical region. The plant is native to the Western and Northern Capes, where it occurs at Lokenberg in the Bokkeveld Mountains. The plant grows mainly in hard sandstone sand on level crests at altitudes of 600 to 900 metres (2,000–3,000 ft). In Afrikaans it is known as Lokenberg-tolbos.
Arisarum proboscideum, also known as the mouse plant or mouse-tail plant, is a flowering plant in the family Araceae.
