Question

An advantage of Cleistogamy is
A. It leads to greater genetic diversity
B. Seed dispersal is more efficient and widespread
C. Each visit of pollinator gives hundreds of pollen grains
D. Seed set is not dependent upon pollinators

Answer 1

Pollination is the process of transfer of pollen grains from the anther of a male flower to the stigma of the female flower for the production of offspring in the next generation. Pollination are broadly of two types- self pollination where the stamen and carpel mature at the same time and the pollen grains land on the same flower’s stigma and cross pollination where the pollen from the anther of one flower lands on the stigma of another flower on a different plant of the same species.

Complete answer: Cleistogamy is a type of self pollination that is characterized in certain plants that have non-opening flowers. In such flowers the stigma and anther lie close to each other. This type of pollination is widespread in the grass family. There are several advantages of cleistogamy, which includes that lesser amounts of seeds need to be produced, they can propagate themselves under adverse conditions but one of the disadvantages associated with it are that the chances of genetic variation are reduced. Thus among the above options given the advantage associated with cleistogamy is seed set is not dependent on pollinator because cleistogamy involves unopened flowers and thus doesn’t depend on pollinators.

So the correct option is D).

Note: Pollination is required by plants for the production of offspring and cleistogamy is helpful in case of unopened flowers because external pollinators cannot reach them and in the absence of this method they would not be able to produce offspring.