The megasporangia each produce a single megaspore. Others form female organs (carpels), the female sporangia (megasporangia) producing a single large megaspore. The megaspore mother cell arises within the megasporangium tissue. The smaller of these, the microspore, is male and the larger megaspore is female. Only one is a functional megaspore whereas the others stay dysfunctional or degenerate. This type of megagametophyte develops from the megaspore through three rounds of mitotic divisions. Meiosis occurs and a megaspore is produced as the first cell of the megagametophyte. The haploid megaspore inside the nucellus gives rise to the female gametophyte, called the "megagametophyte". One kind, the megasporangium, produces only a single large spore (a megaspore). The megaspore then undergoes megagametogenesis to give rise to the female [gametophyte]. In gymnosperms and flowering plants, the megaspore is produced inside the nucleus of the ovule.