SEED This consists of an embryonic plant together with a store of food, all surrounded by a protective coat. The seed grows after the egg of a female plant has been fertilised by a male sex cell from a pollen grain. Some plants can grow a seed without input from a male cell. A seed is capable of growing into a new individual plant.   Click on Back in your browser to return to previous page.               SEXUAL REPRODUCTION Reproduction which takes place when male and female cells join to create a new individual. The male and female cells come from two different individuals, or from the same individual - from the male and female organs.   Click on Back in your browser to return to previous page.           SHRUB A woody plant, of small or medium size, with lots of branching from the base.   Click on Back in your browser to return to previous page.                 STAMEN (sounds like "stay-men") The stamen is the male reproductive part of a flower. It is a stalk with an anther on the top, in which pollen is produced.   Click on Back in your browser to return to previous page.               SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP This is when two different types of organism live together to the advantage of both. Each organism provides something useful to the other.   Click on Back in your browser to return to previous page.             SPORE A spore is a tiny reproductive body, made of either one or many cells, used by plants and fungi. Spores come in a great variety of forms. Spores separate from the parent plant or fungus, and develop into a new individual. In many plants, the spore develops into male or female sex cells which fuse during fertilisation to form a seed. In other plants and in fungi, the spores develop directly into a new individual, either vegetatively or sexually. Spores are unlike the seeds found in seed-plants, because they do not contain an embryo, and because they do not have much of a food reserve. Many resting spores can survive for long periods of time, and through unfavourable conditions such as extreme hot, cold or dry.   Click on Back in your browser to return to previous page.           SUCCESSION The changing composition of a community of plants, as it moves towards a climax community. For example, a pond containing reeds, lilies and other water plants, will change into marshland, and eventually woodland (a climax community), as grasses, shrubs and trees replace the water plants.   Click on Back in your browser to return to previous page.