The particular conditions under which development of a vascular plant begins in the embryo obviously hold great interest for the student of morphogenesis. The question that clearly requires investigation is whether the sequential pattern that emerges during embryogeny is to be regarded as an expression of the inherent capacity of the zygote, as the result of specific regulation from the environment, or as the manifestation of subtle interaction between the two. Although descriptive accounts of embryogenesis are helpful in exploring this problem, experimental and analytical techniques can provide a different and more penetrating analysis of these possibilities. Experimental embryology has been an extremely valuable discipline in elucidating problems of animal morphogenesis, but the plant counterpart of this field has played a limited role in the understanding of plant morphogenesis. A major factor contributing to this deficiency has been the relative inaccessibility of the plant embryo at the formative stages, with the result that the botanical work that most closely corresponds to experimental animal embryology has been done with the apical meristerns of the adult plant. Nonetheless, there are several techniques by which the development of the embryo may be probed, and these have led to the acquisition of a body of information from which a meaningful interpretation of embryogeny is beginning to emerge.

Throughout the embryophytes, fertilization and embryogenesis occur in specialized structures that appear to provide a distinctive environment.