HORTICULTURE

Detailed explanation-1: -In gymnosperms, a leafy green sporophyte generates cones containing male and female gametophytes; female cones are bigger than male cones and are located higher up in the tree. A male cone contains microsporophylls where male gametophytes ( pollen ) are produced and are later carried by wind to female gametophytes.

Detailed explanation-2: -The female cones are larger than the male cones and are positioned towards the top of the tree; the small, male cones are located in the lower region of the tree. Because the pollen is shed and blown by the wind, this arrangement makes it difficult for a gymnosperm to self-pollinate.

Detailed explanation-3: -Pine trees are conifers (coniferous = cone bearing) and carry both male and female sporophylls on the same mature sporophyte. Therefore, they are monoecious plants. Like all gymnosperms, pines are heterosporous and generate two different types of spores (male microspores and female megaspores).

Detailed explanation-4: -gymnosperm, any vascular plant that reproduces by means of an exposed seed, or ovule-unlike angiosperms, or flowering plants, whose seeds are enclosed by mature ovaries, or fruits. The seeds of many gymnosperms (literally, “naked seeds”) are borne in cones and are not visible until maturity.

Detailed explanation-5: -Key Points. Gymnosperms produce both male and female cones, each making the gametes needed for fertilization; this makes them heterosporous. Megaspores made in cones develop into the female gametophytes inside the ovules of gymnosperms, while pollen grains develop from cones that produce microspores.