Concept
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Life Cycles of Sexually Reproducing Organisms
![Alternation of Generations](../../../../../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/18908/full/figure-11-02-03.jpeg)
Alternation of Generations
Plants have a life cycle that alternates between a multicellular haploid organism and a multicellular diploid organism. In some plants, such as ferns, both the haploid and diploid plant stages are free-living. The diploid plant is called a sporophyte because it produces haploid spores by meiosis. The spores develop into multicellular, haploid plants called gametophytes because they produce gametes. The gametes of two individuals will fuse to form a diploid zygote that becomes the sporophyte.
Source
Boundless vets and curates high-quality, openly licensed content from around the Internet. This particular resource used the following sources:
"OpenStax College, Sexual Reproduction. October 16, 2013."
http://cnx.org/content/m44470/latest/Figure_11_02_03.jpg
OpenStax CNX
CC BY 3.0.