EVERYDAY SCIENCE - PLANTS REPRODUCTION
Question 1

Bob and Ace enjoy eating durian. Ace researched on the durian to learn more about the plant and its fruits. He read that the durian is a tropical fruit found in Southeast Asia. It has large brown seeds that are coated with yellow flesh. 

The durian fruit is also observed to have a hard and thorny husk. Its large seeds are known to be successfully dispersed only by larger mammals such as elephants, rhinoceroses and macaques (a type of large monkey). Elephants and rhinoceroses swallow the seeds whole and pass them out with their droppings. Macaques eat only the flesh and throw the seeds away.

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Answer 1

Fill in the blanks with the keywords provided below.
[seeds] • [dispersal] • [small] • [strong smell] • [ovules] • [nectar] • [anther] • [fleshy]

a) State whether the durian flower has a single ovule or multiple ovules. Explain your answer.

Answer:

Since the durian fruit has multiple , its flower has multiple . After fertilisation, each ovule will develop into one seed.


b) Describe two features of the durian fruit and explain how they help in the dispersal of durian seeds.

Answer:

The durian fruit is and has a to attract animals.
The seeds are too large to be swallowed or thrown by small animals. The hard, thorny husk prevents animals from eating the flesh inside. This is so that the flesh will remain to attract large animals that are able to disperse the seeds.


c) Ace also read that durians typically have large, white flowers that are pollinated by bats. He made these 2 statements:

Statement 1: "Bats help to pollinate the flowers because they get to eat the flesh of the durian fruit afterwards."

Statement 2: "Bats thus help to reduce competition between durian trees for water, sunlight, space and minerals.”

Churros commented that there were errors in each of the two statements. Identify and explain what is wrong with the 2 statements.

Answer:

Statement 1 is wrong as bats do not feed on the flesh of the durian fruit. Bats cannot open the hard covering of the fruit to reach the flesh. They are also not strong enough to carry the large and heavy seeds. They help to pollinate flowers when they feed on the flowers’ .
Statement 2 is wrong as reducing competition between plants is achieved through seed , not pollination. Pollination is the transfer of pollen grains from to stigma. Bats only help to pollinate the durian flowers, but they do not help the durian tree to disperse its seeds.




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“Durian flowers bloom in the late afternoon until night. This is when bats (which are nocturnal) start to become active. Watch this video of a cave bat pollinating a durian flower.”

Read more about durians from this website.

http://durianinfo.blogspot.com/p/origin-and-botany-of-durian.html