How does a plant begin life ?

Inside each seed, there is an embryo plant and a precious food store, ready for the first phase of the plant life cycle. When conditions are right like sufficiently warm and moist ground, the seed starts to germinate.
It sends out its main root, with other smaller roots branching off. Then the leaves start to appear. The plant is becoming complete and will continue to grow feeding itself by using the sunlight.

Lack of water

If a seed disperses into dry surroundings, it does not die. Instead the seed stays in the ground for up to a year until there is contact with the water. Then it begins to germinate. Once the plant begins to grow, the seed withers, because it is no longer required to feed the new plant.

Plants reproducing without seeds

Some plants develop from the bulbs or tubers, underground stems which can draw up the food necessary for new shoots.
Bulbs are made up of layers of leaves. These leaves protect the cells from which the new plant will develop.

The part of the potato plant which we eat is the tuber. This tuber would have supplied food to the new shoots so that a new potato plant would grow.

Bananas do not grow from seeds. The roots of a new plant grow on a rhizome, an underground stem which grows horizontally, and nourishes the plant in the same way as a bulb or tuber.

Some plants such as strawberries produce shoots which grow sideways, called runners. On contact with the soil, these runners develop roots, giving life to a new plant. When the plant begins to grow, the runner withers and dies.

Some of the plants without seeds