Why do some plants have Flowers?
Flowers contain the plant’s reproductive organs which have a most important task, to generate seeds to give life to new plants. The male organs of the flower, the stamens, produce pollen, which is made p of tiny little grains of powder, usually yellow.
These grains of pollen, carried by the wind, by water or animals, become intercepted by the pistil, the female part of the flower, and these reach the ovary. Seeds from when the pollen comes in contact with an ovule i:e when an ovule has been fertilized.
The Pistil
At the top of the pistil is the stigma, a sticky selling which catches the pollen. Below this is the style, along which the pollen descends towards the ovary at the centre of the flower.
The Ovule
The ovule is inside the ovary. It is here that the fertilization takes place to begin the development of new seeds. From this moment, the ovary is transformed into a fruit.
The Plants without Flowers
Conifers reproduce by keeping their seeds in cones. These plants have male cones and female cones. The pine cone of the conifer tree protects the little pines by its wooden scales.
Mosses reproduce by pores. These are contained in small capsules at the ends of steles, central tubes of the stems. Each spore can give life to a new plant.
Ferns are reproduced by spores, microscopic cells which drop from the underside of the leaf. The spores germinate ad develop into tiny, usually heart shaped plants which contain the male and female cells ready to create a new plant.
