Q1.
The transfer of the pollen grains to the stigma is important for the formation of fruits and seeds. Nature has provided plants with various strategies for pollination to occur. What do you think will happen if pollination does not occur?
Answer
The whole chain that leads to a fruit stops at its first link. Follow it through:
no pollen on the stigma → no pollen tube down the style
→ the male gamete never reaches the ovule
→ no fertilisation → no zygote → no embryo
→ the ovules do not become seeds
→ the ovary does not enlarge → no fruit
→ the male gamete never reaches the ovule
→ no fertilisation → no zygote → no embryo
→ the ovules do not become seeds
→ the ovary does not enlarge → no fruit
The unpollinated flower simply withers and drops off the plant.
What this means beyond the single flower:
- For the crop — no grain, no pulses, no fruit. The plant may look healthy and flower well and still yield nothing.
- For the next season — no seed, so nothing to sow.
- For everything that eats those seeds and fruits — birds, animals and people lose the food.
- For the species — no new individuals from sexual reproduction, so no new combinations of characters and no variation. A plant that can still spread vegetatively would survive, but only as clones.
Why this is a live problem, not a hypothetical one: the exercise Question 12 describes exactly this happening — apple yields in the lower Himalayan region falling because the population of natural pollinators has declined. The flowers open, but too few of them are pollinated, so too few set fruit. Bringing in a bee colony restores the missing link.