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Pollination
Bees play an important role in the life of flowering plants. All fruits
start out as flowers, but they don't turn into fruits unless they are pollinated.
If we did not have bees, flowers wouldn't get pollinated and there would
be no fruit.
Bees always go to flowers to get nectar to make honey. When the bees
are on the flowers, pollen brushes up on them and sticks to them. Then,
they fly to another plant and the process happens again. Only this time,
some pollen from the first flower drops on to the pistil (female part)
of the second flower. The pollen goes into the ovary where the ovules are
stored, and fertilizes them. Soon the pistil grows into a pod or fruit.
Click on the picture below or click on one of the parts of the flower
that you would like to learn more about.
1. Ovules
The ovules are the parts of the flower that will turn into seeds. The
seed is made up of many parts. The roots come out when the seed sprouts.
They suck up water so that the true leaves will be able to transform water
and sunlight into oxygen and food for the young plant. The cotyledons are
the first leaves to appear, and they supply food temporarily to the embryo.
The true leaves won't appear until later. The stem is tucked inside the
seed and it will sprout to hold up the flower.
2. Stem
The cotyledons which were talked about earlier, still have the same
purpose, only they are above the ground. They shrivel up and die when the
true leaves come. The true leaves as mentioned before still do photosynthesis,
or make food. Soon after they come, the plant has a growth spurt. Buds then
come in. Buds are the unopened flowers.
3. Petals
On the flower there are petals. Petals are the brightly colored parts
that most of us notice first.They are brightly colored so bees are attracted.
Bees are also attracted to them because bees see patterns on the petals
that are only visible in ultraviolet light, because bees have ultraviolet
vision.
4. Stamen
The stamen is the male part of the flower. There are two parts on it,
the anthers and the filament. The filament just holds up the anthers. The
anthers produce pollen. Pollen is the sticky stuff that some of us are allergic
to. That stuff somehow gets into another flower's pistil.
5. Pistil
The pistil is the female part of the flower. It is made up of three
parts: the stigma, the style, and the ovary. The stigma is a sticky part
at the top of a pistil. It gets pollen stuck on it. Then the pollen burrows
down the long, skinny style. It gets into the ovary, or the "nursery"
for unfertilized eggs. It then fertilizes them. When that happens, the style
gets longer and fatter. It turns into either a pod or a fruit. Either way,
inside lay the eggs. When the pod/fruit opens, the whole cycle begins again.
6. Sepals
The sepals are the opened buds. They are right under the petals at the
very top of the stem. They look like they are holding the flower in place,
but the flowers actually came out of them!
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