The Life Cycle of a Plant

Hi, I am here to talk to you about the life cycle of a plant. There are four stages in the life cycle of the plant—seed, growth, producing offspring and death. The seed is the starting point for most plants or the plants such as ferns start as spores. The seeds are produced in a fruiting body. For flowers, this is a seed headed forms after the flower starts to wither the end of its life cycle. For vegetables and fruit, the seeds are produced in either flowers or a fruit or fruiting body. For example, a tomato produces seeds in the part that we eat. Ones the plant starts producing the fruit, it usually only produced a set amount of fruit or keeps producing in a set period of time. A seed contains all the things necessary for the plant to begin its growth cycle. It contains all the fruit that beginning plant needs. It also has a protective coat or shell to keep it intact as much as possible before it breaks out and starts growing into a plant. Then we move on to growth and food. Once the seed has sprouted, the plant will need nutrients, air and water along with sunshine to make its own food for the process of photosynthesis. That is just as fancy word for the process the plant uses to make its own food. When we take in food we have to get the food from an outside source and then process it in our own bodies. A plant makes its own food which is mostly sugars. Once the plant has reached a certain height, it stops growing and spends the rest of its energy on producing offspring. Offspring are like the plant’s babies. The plant must produce more of its own or there would never be anymore of that plant. The parent plant starts to produce seeds. If too many seeds get into one area, there might be too much competition and not many seed might survive. But if they spread up and find areas secluded from others like it, they stand out much better chance of survival. Plants have adopted various means of spreading out there seeds. Some have developed spines or barbs. This allows the seed to attach to the fur or clothes in the case of us humans, or animals that brush up against the plant. Some seeds have developed wind shapes that allow the wind to carry the seed further away. All things die—it is a fact of life. Death is inevitable with a plant. Plants are only programmed to live so long but they lived on through the seeds that have become planted, more plants will grow. Most typical garden plants die when the whether is cold. Usually we have to keep planting seeds ourselves in the garden because we take the fruit and use it as food ourselves. Some of us may keep the seeds to use next year and some gardeners may lay the few fruits stay on the plant, so they may produce plants next year. The circle that we call the plant life cycle is important to understand. Knowing about the life cycle can help us determine which plant we may need to replant next season or which plant that may come up on there own. It is easy in planning, planting and caring for the garden is a determent factor and whether the garden will survive or not.