Name the parts of pistil which develop into fruit and seeds.

NCERT Exemplar · Q27

Q. Name the parts of pistil which develop into fruit and seeds.

Meghalaya MboseShort· 2mImportance★★★★★

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Concept understanding — Male And Female Gametophyte

Let’s start with something you already know. Think of a plant like a mango tree. It produces flowers, and those flowers eventually turn into mangoes. How does that happen? The flower is the plant’s reproductive organ, and inside it, two tiny but crucial structures are made: the male gametophyte and the female gametophyte. These are not the “male” and “female” parts of the flower themselves (like the stamen and pistil) — they are the microscopic, single-generation cells that actually carry the genetic material to form the next plant.

The everyday intuition

Imagine you are baking a cake. The male gametophyte is like the packet of dry yeast — it’s small, mobile, and needs to be added to the mixture. The female gametophyte is like the bowl of flour, eggs, and sugar — it’s larger, stationary, and provides the environment where the yeast works. Without the yeast reaching the bowl, no cake rises. Without the bowl, the yeast has nothing to act on. In a flower, the male gametophyte (pollen grain) must travel to the female gametophyte (embryo sac) for fertilisation to happen.

The precise meaning

In NCERT biology, the male gametophyte is the pollen grain. It develops inside the anther (the top part of the stamen). A mature pollen grain contains two cells: a tube cell and a generative cell. The tube cell will grow a long tube down the style of the pistil, and the generative cell will divide to form two sperm cells. So the male gametophyte is not the whole stamen — it’s the tiny, single-celled (or two-celled) structure that carries the male genetic material.

The female gametophyte is the embryo sac. It develops inside the ovule, which is located in the ovary of the pistil. The embryo sac is a seven-celled, eight-nucleate structure (though you don’t need to memorise numbers for a prose subject — just know it’s a small, organised sac). It contains the egg cell (the female gamete) and other cells that help in fertilisation and nourishment. The female gametophyte is not the whole pistil — it’s the microscopic sac inside the ovule.

Important

The male gametophyte (pollen grain) is haploid — it has only one set of chromosomes. The female gametophyte (embryo sac) is also haploid. When they fuse during fertilisation, they form a diploid zygote, which grows into the seed. This is why both are called “gametophytes” — they produce gametes (sperm and egg).

Why it matters …

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After fertilization, the ovary of the pistil develops into the fruit, and the ovules inside the ovary develop into the seeds.

The pistil, also known as the carpel, is the female reproductive organ of a flower. It is a crucial structure for sexual reproduction in flowering plants, housing the ovules which, upon fertilization, will give rise to new life. To understand which parts transform into fruit and seeds, we first need to appreciate the structure of the pistil itself.

A typical pistil consists of three main parts:

Stigma: This is the receptive tip of the pistil, often sticky or feathery, designed to capture pollen grains.
Style: A slender stalk that connects the stigma to the ovary. It acts as a pathway for the pollen tube to grow down towards the ovules.
Ovary: This is the swollen basal part of the pistil, located at the base of the style. Inside the ovary are one or more ovules, which contain the female gamete (egg cell).

The transformation of these parts into fruit and seeds is a direct consequence of successful fertilization. When a pollen grain lands on the stigma, it germinates, forming a pollen tube that grows through the style and enters the ovule within the ovary. Inside the ovule, the male gametes from the pollen fuse with the female gamete (egg cell) and the central cell, a process known as double fertilization.

Important

The development of fruit and seeds is initiated only after successful fertilization has occurred.

Following fertilization, a series of remarkable developmental changes take place within the flower, primarily affecting the pistil:

Ovary to Fruit: The entire ovary, which encloses the ovules, undergoes significant growth and maturation. Its walls thicken and differentiate to form the pericarp, which is the wall of the fruit. The pericarp can be fleshy (as in mango or tomato) or dry (as in groundnut or mustard). Thus, the ovary is the part of the pistil that develops into the fruit. …

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Q.Name the parts of pistil which develop into fruit and seeds.

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