Flowers and Pollination

Why plants have flowers

A flower is one of the most beautiful things in nature, but it is not pretty just to please us. A flower is a plant's way of making seeds, and seeds grow into new plants. To make those seeds, a flower needs help. That help is called pollination.

Inside a flower 🌼

Look closely at a flower and you will find its parts:

• The petals are the colourful outer layer. Their bright colours and patterns act like a sign that says "land here!"
• In the middle are tiny stalks that hold pollen — a fine yellow dust.
• At the very centre is the part that receives pollen and grows into seeds.
• Deep inside, many flowers make nectar, a sweet drink.

What is pollination?

For a flower to make seeds, pollen has to travel from one flower to the seed-making part of another flower of the same kind. Moving that pollen is called pollination. The tricky part is that flowers cannot move. They are rooted to the spot and cannot carry their own pollen anywhere. So they get a delivery service to do the job for them: animals and the wind. Each flower is shaped to make that delivery happen, as we will see.

Pollinators do the work 🐝🦋

Most colourful, sweet-smelling flowers are pollinated by animals called pollinators. A bee lands on a flower to drink its nectar. As it crawls about, fine pollen sticks all over its fuzzy body. When the bee flies to the next flower, some of that pollen rubs off — and the flower is pollinated. The bee did it without even trying!

Butterflies, moths, beetles and even some birds and bats pollinate flowers too. This is why flowers work so hard to be noticed: bright petals, a sweet smell and a reward of nectar all attract pollinators. Some flowers, like the evening primrose, even open at night and smell strong to bring in moths in the dark.

Pollination by wind 🌬️

Not every flower needs an animal. Grasses, oak trees and hazel trees use the wind. Their flowers are usually small, dull and have no scent, because they do not need to attract anyone. Instead, they make huge clouds of light, dusty pollen that the wind blows away. Some of it lands on another flower of the same kind. (This is also the pollen that makes some people sneeze with hay fever in summer.)

From flower to fruit 🍎

Once a flower is pollinated, the petals are no longer needed and they often wilt and drop off. The seed-making part begins to swell and grow. Seeds form inside, and around many seeds a fruit grows to protect them and help them spread. An apple, a tomato and a pumpkin all started as flowers that were pollinated. So the next time you eat an apple, remember: a bee probably helped make it!

Why pollination matters 🌍

Pollination is not just important for plants — it is important for us, too. About one in every three mouthfuls of food we eat depends on pollinators. Apples, strawberries, almonds, pumpkins, chocolate and many vegetables all need insects to pollinate their flowers first. Without pollinators, our shops would have far less food in them.

This is why scientists are worried that bees and other pollinators are becoming rarer in many places. Losing trees and wild flowers, and using sprays that harm insects, makes life hard for them. The good news is that everyone can help. Planting flowers, leaving a patch of garden wild, and not harming bees all give pollinators a better chance. When you help a bee, you help the whole web of life.

Watch pollination happen

On a warm, sunny day, find a patch of flowers in a garden or park. Stand quietly and watch for a few minutes. Count how many visitors land on the flowers — bees, butterflies, hoverflies, beetles. Which flowers are the most popular? Look closely (but do not touch any bees) to see if you can spot yellow pollen stuck to a bee's legs or body. Draw your favourite flower and label its petals and its centre. You are watching pollination in action.

To find out more about the busiest pollinators of all, read How Bees Make Honey. And to see what happens to the seeds a pollinated flower makes, visit The Life Cycle of Plants.