REPRODUCTION

2009

 
 

Like all other plants, Cinnamomum zeylanicum exhibits alteration of generations, including multicellular haploid and diploid stages. The sporophyte is the dominant generation; the tree you actually see and has true roots, stems, and leaves. The gametophytes include the pollen and egg, which are microscopic. 

Cinnamon forms flowers and reproduces sexually by seeds enclosed in an ovary. Its flowers house the female reproductive structures, the carpel, including the ovary, style, and pollen tube and the male reproductive structures, the stamen, including the anther and filament. Pollen grains are called microspores and are required to fertilize the megaspore, the female egg. Pollen is carried to the carpel by means of wind, insects, or other pollinators. C. zeylanicum cross-fertilizes, meaning the pollen and egg are typically from separate organisms. During fertilization the pollen lands on the sticky stigma of the style and travels down the pollen tube where it reaches the ovule and fertilizes the egg. The seed develops in the ovule and are protected by the pericarp or ovary wall. See the diagram to the upper right of a simplified angiosperm life cycle. This is the fruit of the plant (seen in the picture below) and houses the seeds. Cinnamon seeds are dicots, meaning they have two cotyledon.

 

Photos Below

  1. 1.The fleshy purple/black fruit houses the seed

  2. 2.Cinnamon seeds

Life History of Cinnamon: How This Plant Continues to Exist.

Stats

General Life cycle  Alteration of Generations

FLOWERS?  Yes

Seeds  Yes, enclosed in ovary

Asexual or sexual?  Sexual

    For a cinnamon seed to germinate it requires an average temperature of 20° Celsius to 30° Celsius, an average rainfall of 1250 mm to 2500 mm, and an average elevation of 300m to 350m from sea. It also prefers deep, well-drained moist soil that is either loam or sandy and has no root disturbances. Loam soil is a mix of sand, silt or clay, and organic matter. The typical life span of a cinnamon tree in nature is forty to fifty years, however it is different for cinnamon trees that are harvested for product. To learn more about how C. zeylanicum gains its nutrients to grow into large trees visit the page on nutrition and adaptations.