Biology · Sexual Reproduction in Flowering Plants · NEET
Wheat is an albuminous (endospermic) seed. In albuminous seeds the endosperm is not fully used up during embryo development, so a part of it stays in the mature seed as stored food. Wheat, maize, barley, castor, coconut, and sunflower are all albuminous. Pea and groundnut are the common non-albuminous examples NEET repeats.
Both are layers of the seed coat. The testa is the outer, thicker, harder layer that gives protection. The tegmen is the inner, thinner, membranous layer. Simple order to remember from outside in: Testa (outer) then Tegmen (inner). The seed coat develops from the integuments of the ovule.
Yes. 'Albuminous' and 'endospermic' mean the same thing in NEET NCERT language. The old word for endosperm was 'albumen', so a seed that keeps its endosperm is called albuminous. Non-albuminous means the same as non-endospermic or ex-albuminous.
Endosperm is triploid (3n) food tissue formed after double fertilisation. Perisperm is the leftover, unused part of the nucellus (2n) that persists in some seeds like black pepper and beet. So endosperm = 3n from the central cell; perisperm = residual nucellus. This is a very common NEET trap.
Double fertilisation still forms an endosperm in every angiosperm. But in non-albuminous seeds like pea and groundnut, the growing embryo completely eats up this endosperm and stores that food in its fleshy cotyledons. So the food is not lost; it just moves into the cotyledons, leaving no separate endosperm in the ripe seed.
Match List I with List II: A. Scutellum, B. Non-albuminous seed, C. Epiblast, D. Perisperm | I. Persistent nucellus, II. Cotyledon of Monocot seed, III. Groundnut, IV. Rudimentary cotyledon. Choose the option with all correct matches.
Which of the following plants produces non-albuminous seeds?
Try the real previous-year questions from this chapter — each with the answer and a full solution.
A seed is made of a protective seed coat and an embryo. The embryo has a radicle, an embryonal axis, and one cotyledon (monocots like wheat and maize) or two cotyledons (dicots like gram and pea). Albuminous seeds also keep stored endosperm.
Albuminous (endospermic): wheat, maize, barley, castor, sunflower, coconut. Non-albuminous (non-endospermic): pea, groundnut, bean, gram. NEET most often uses pea and groundnut as the non-albuminous examples.
The hilum is a scar on the seed coat where the developing seed was attached to the fruit through the funicle. Just above the hilum is a small pore called the micropyle, through which water enters first during germination.
The seed coat develops from the integuments of the ovule. The outer integument hardens into the outer testa and the inner integument forms the inner tegmen. This is why the seed coat is protective and often tough.
Castor is an albuminous (endospermic) seed. It keeps a large, oily endosperm as stored food, which is why it is a standard NCERT example of an albuminous seed alongside wheat and maize.
