Plants, why do they reproduce and where does this ability come from?
Why do plants reproduce and where did this ability come from?
The why is simple. A principle of biology is that “life only comes from life.” The first plants either reproduced or died out; no
second chances were possible. They did not have hundreds, thousands, millions, or billions of years to evolve this ability by chance.
This ability must have been there from the beginning. The where is also simple based on what we know today. The probability of organic
life forming in the first place by natural means is so small as to be infinitesimal. [1] And organic life depends on cells run by
the vast information contained in DNA. The principle of information science is that information only comes from intelligence. So,
the ability to reproduce must have come from an intelligent designer in the beginning.
Sexual and asexual reproduction of plants
Life
is passed on by plants to the next generation of plants sexually, or asexually and sexually, or asexually, depending on the type of
plant. The entire process of plant reproduction, no matter how, is extremely complex both at the cellular and macroscopic levels.
Flowering plants and conifers sexually reproduce by seeds. An estimated 391,000 vascular plant species (plants having phloem and xylem)
are known to science of which about 94% are flowering plants [2] and about 1.6% are conifers. [3] Some flowering plants can reproduce
sexually and asexually such as strawberries (through seeds and nodes on above ground stolons), Bermuda grass (through seeds and nodes
on stolons and rhizomes), and aspens and poplars (through seeds and sprouts), and tulips (through seeds and bulbs). Some non-flowering
plants such as ferns reproduce through a life cycle of alternation of generations between sporophyte diploids with asexual spores
and gametophyte haploids with organs reproducing sexually. About 2.7% of vascular plants are ferns. [4] Other non-flowering plants
only reproduce asexually such as Bryophyllum (produce small plantlets on the fringe of leaves which root when they drop to soil),
and certain small algae (through fragmentation).
Evidence for plant reproduction by an intelligent designer not restricted to plant
origins.
Most evolutionists believe that the different modes of plant reproduction evolved in small steps, usually from simpler modes
by natural selection. There is no evidence to support this. Natural selection does not create information but can only indirectly
select among the available information in the DNA. Natural selection fine tunes by dropping certain lesser desirable traits in a certain
environment. In a different environment, natural selection may drop other traits. No new organs are added to the DNA information by
this means. Again, information comes only from intelligence.
What about mutations, can’t they produce new organs? DNA strands are very
fragile with frequent breaks. Thankfully, “All cells possess DNA-repair enzymes that attempt to minimize the number of mutations that
occur.” [5] DNA repair works very well but not perfectly, and a small percentage of the errors are not corrected by this means. Errors
in the genome that remain unfixed are mutations. Some of these mutations are inherited by the next generation through the reproductive
process. Inherited mutations result in the loss of information and not the gain of information necessary for the exceedingly small
steps toward evolutionary change in the reproduction modes envisioned by evolutionists. So, mutations lead to the opposite of evolution
which is de-evolution. Therefore, mutations can harm plant reproduction from the original intelligent design for each plant species.
What do flowers show about where the plant’s ability to reproduce came from?
Depending on the kind of flowering plant, they may have
both female and male organs in the same blossom as illustrated below, female organs and male organs in separate blossoms on the same
plant or on separate plants of the same species. On some plants, the blossoms are so small they are easy to overlook. Although the
variety of flowers from species to species is immense, certain parts are identifiable as performing the same basic functions.
Demonstrating
where one mode of flower reproduction came from should be sufficient evidence of that possibility for all. So, analysis will be restricted
to flowering plants with both male and female organs (bisexual) illustrated and described below.
(a)
Bisexual Flowering Plant
Ancillary parts:
Sepals – protect the unopened bud of the flower, help keep the flower from drying out and
often support the flower.
Petals – attract pollinators, help transfer of pollen from one flower to another and protect inner reproductive
parts. Not all flowers have petals; for example, grasses do not.
Nectaries – are glands often found at the base of stamens that produce
nectar to attract pollinators to promote pollination. Many plants pollinated by wind do not have nectaries.
Floral axis – where the
reproductive organs and usually the sepals and petals are attached.
Pedicel – stalk bearing a single flower of an inflorescence. It
transports water and nutrients to the flower and orients the flower to sunlight and for pollination.
Stamens (Male parts):
Anthers – produce male sex cells (male gametes) in pollen grains necessary for reproduction.
Microsporangia – sacs in anthers that
produce male gametes inside pollen grains, store pollen, and release pollen at the proper time for transport to the stigma of a female
flower.
Filaments - transport water and nutrients to the anther and positions the anther to assist in pollen dispersal.
Connective –
sterile conducting strands that joins the locules of a two-lobed anther.
Pistils (Female parts):
Stigmas
– recognizes, captures, and rehydrates/germinates compatible pollen, sends “hormonal signals to pollen grains directing them to elongate
into the pistil, forming pollen tubes.” [6]
Styles – are long slender tube-like structures that provide connections between
stigmas to ovaries. “The style is particularly crucial throughout the fertilization process because it not only generates the pollen
tube but also prevents incompatible pollen entering the ovary.” [7]
Pollen tubes – transport male sperm to unite with female eggs
in ovules.
Ovaries – protect ovules, prevent certain sperm mutations from reaching female gametes (sex cells), [8] provide nutrients,
hormones, and water to developing seeds, in many plants after pollination they swell to form the fruity part surrounding the seed(s),
and aide in dispersing seeds.
Ovules – one or more per flower ovary: each houses a female gamete, nutrients for embryo development
and protective layers. After fertilization (fusion of male and female gametes), each ovule develops into a seed with an embryo within.
Flowers of flowering plants appear to have been designed. Most evolutionists will agree with this statement but believe that design
in this case is an illusion. Creationists, to the contrary, believe all life including plants with their flowers was designed by God.
So, what about bisexual flowers show that they were designed? One way they show this is by comparing them to things that are unquestionably
designed. Computers and cars are complex machines with many distinct parts doing specific functions toward purposeful goals and are
unquestionably designed by intelligent humans. As outlined above, bisexual flowers are also complex with many distinct parts performing
specific functions, including safeguards, toward the goal of successful reproduction. Computers and cars are not the result of random
chances, but intelligence. Bisexual flowers have an infinitesimally small probability of forming by random chance. Then by inference
to the best solution, considering the specified complexity and improbability of flowers, an intelligent designer formed flowers as
well.
Conclusions
· Plant reproduction must have occurred from the beginning.
· The
information in the plant’s DNA must have come from intelligence.
· Natural selection can only fine tune among
the available information and not create information.
· Mutations lead to the opposite of evolution, which
is de-evolution.
· An intelligent designer created flowers.
Notes:
[a] “Plants and animals were originally
created with large gene pools within distinct created kinds. A large gene pool gives a created kind the genetic potential to produce
a variety of types within the kind, allowing the offspring to adapt to varying ecosystems and ensure the survival of that kind of
organism.” [9]
[b] Evolutionary speculation: “Mutations are essential to evolution; they are the raw material of genetic variation. Without mutation, evolution could not occur.” [10]
[c] “... DNA undergoes up to a million damage and repair events per cell
per day.” [11]
[d] “...most mutations which cause changes in the amino acid sequence of proteins tend to damage function to a
greater or lesser degree.” [12]
[e] Mutations produce degradation of the information in the genome. “(D)egradation is counteracted
by natural selection that helps maintain the status quo.” [13]
[f] In the petunia it appears that “All pollen grains - incompatible
as well as compatible - germinate forming pollen tubes that begin to grow down the style. However, growth of incompatible pollen tubes
stops in the style while compatible tubes go on to fertilize the egg in the ovary. The block within incompatible pollen tubes is created
by an S-locus-encoded ribonuclease (S-RNase), which is synthesized within the style, enters the pollen tube and destroys its RNA molecules
halting pollen tube growth.” [14]
Pictures:
(a) LadyofHats, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
References:
[2] Dasgupta, S., “How many plant species are there in the world?” Scientists now have an answer, Mongabay, May 12, 2016
[3] “Conifer”,
Wikipedia, internet viewed October 21, 2024 (more than six hundred extant species)
[4] “Fern”, Britannica, online, September 19, 2024
(about 10,500 species extant ferns)
[5] Brown, T., “Genomes,” second edition (Oxford: Wiley-Liss, 2002), Chapter 14, Repair and Recombination.
[6] “Stigma, What is Stigma?” sciencefacts.net, internet viewed October 21, 2024
[7] “What is the function of flowers?” byjus.com,
internet viewed November 1, 2024
[8] “What is the Function of Ovaries of Flowers?” Sciencing, internet viewed October 21, 2024
[9] “Variation
is limited with Kinds”, The Institute for Creation Research, https://www.icr.org/variation/
[10] “DNA and Mutations,” Understanding
Evolution Team, https://evolution.berkeley.edu/dna-and-mutations/
[11] Williams, Alex, “Mutations: evolution’s engine becomes
evolution’s end!”,
https://creation.com/mutations-are-evolutions-end
[12] Denton, Michael, “Evolution: A Theory in Crisis” (Maryland:
Adler & Adler, Publishers, Inc.,1985), 322
[13] Bergman, J., “Darwinism And The Deterioration Of The Genome,” Christian Research Society, 2005
[14] Kimbel, J., "16.3E: Self-incompatibility - How Plants Avoid Inbreeding," Biology, LIbreTexts. Internet viewed November 30, 2024
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