Question

Androecium in floral formula of a typical flowering plant is represented as A${}_5$. If each microsporangium in this plant produces 20 microspores and total 32000 pollen grains are produced, then how many flowers were formed in this plant?
[0.7 mark]

• A. 20
• B. 40
• C. 10
• D. 5

Answer 1

The correct option is A 20

Let the number of flower forms in the plant = X.

Here,
Number of stamens in each flower = 5
Number of microsporangium in each stamen = 4
Number of microspores in each microsporangium = 20
Number of pollen grains formed by each microspore = 4

Therefore, total number of pollen grains formed by X number of flowers would be:
$X\times 5\times 4\times 20\times 4=32000$

Or $X\times 1600=32000$
Or $X=\frac{32000}{1600}=20$

Hence, 20 flowers were formed in this plant.