Success Criteria

Aim

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Success Criteria

Aim• To know that flowering plants reproduce

• To understand the importance of insects in pollination.

• To know that pollen is produced by flowers and is the key to pollination.

• To know the roles of parts of the flower in pollination.

RecapNominate some willing volunteers to stick the words in the correct places.

stamen

carpel

• Plants produce seeds in order to reproduce. To make a seed a flowermust be pollinated.

• Pollen is made by the male part of the plant, which is called thestamen. The pollen needs to get to the female part of the plant, which iscalled the stigma. Most plants cannot pollinate themselves, but a largeamount of orchids can. What might be an advantage of self-pollination?

Recap

• The pollen must thentravel from one plant toanother plant of the samespecies (e.g. from a rose toa rose or from a daffodilto a daffodil). This iscalled cross-pollination.

Just like actors in a play, each part of the flower has a role to play. Theseparts are vital and pollination wouldn’t be able to take place without anyone of these.

The Vital Roles in Pollination

It is the petal’s job toattract the insects towardsthe flower.

Interestingly, the coloursthat we see are not thesame as the colours that theinsects see. Insects see inultraviolet, which is a typeof light which is outside therange of what human eyescan see.

Petal

petal

The style is above theovary and its job is to holdup the stigma. The style,ovary and stigma all makeup the female part of theflower, which is called the'carpel' or 'pistil'.

Style

style

The stigma’s job is to collect thepollen from other plants wheninsects brush by it. It hasadapted to catch the pollen indifferent ways e.g. some stigmahave tiny hairs on them tocollect the pollen. It is on thestigma that germination beginsto take place.

Stigma

stigma

The filament’s role is to hold upthe anther. If the anther wasvery low down, then insectsmight not be able to collectthat flower’s pollen. Whatwould happen if pollen washarder for insects to collect?

Filament

filament

The anther is the top part ofthe stamen and its role is toproduce the pollen. It isimportant that this pollen isthen carried to another plant.The filament holds up theanther.

Which part of the plant wouldthe pollen need to be taken to?

Anther

anther

filament

Ovary

It is the ovary's job to hold theovules and to keep them safeuntil the flower gets pollinated.

ovary

A labeled flower

• Insects don't pollinate on purpose; it's just something that happens asthey collect nectar from flowers to feed on. Insects are incrediblyimportant when it comes to pollination. Here are some facts to prove it:

• 84% of crops in Europe are pollinated by insects. This is worth £12.6billion a year.

Insects in Pollination

• Honey bees account for 80% ofall insect pollination.

• Nearly all chocolate relies onmidges pollinating the cocoaplant, which might make themseem slightly less annoying!

The Pollination Process

1. The flower petal’s bright colours andfragrant scents attract insects.

2. The insect arrives on the flower tocollect nectar. This nectar is a sweetliquid which makes perfect insect food.

3. As the insect is gathering the nectar, itrubs against the anthers, which rubpollen onto the insect.

4. After the insect is done feeding on theflower’s nectar, it gets hungry andgets attracted by another flower`sbright colours.

The Pollination Process

5. As the insect feeds on the nectar in this new flower, the pollen stuck tothe insect from the first flower rubs off onto the female parts of thesecond flower (the stigma).

6. Part of this pollen travels down the style and then into the ovary.

7. The tiny piece of pollen joins onto an ovule in the ovary. The plant hasnow been fertilised.

8. The ovary of the flower turns into seeds which will then be dispersedso that new plants will be able to grow somewhere else.

*See and complete Pollination worksheets*

• While some plants use insects to help them transport their pollen, othersrely on wind. These plants are usually less colourful as they do not needto attract insects. The wind carries pollen from one plant to another.Rice is an example of a wind-pollinating plant.

• This is a less coordinated way of pollinating, as it relies on a hugeamounts of pollen being blown in any direction, depending on the wind.

Wind Pollination

• Wind pollinating plants cancause some people to experiencehay fever during the spring andsummer due to the largeamounts of pollen in the air.

• Some plants self-pollinate. Theytransfer the pollen grains from theanther to the stigma on the sameflower. These plants do not need apollinator, such as an insect, inorder to reproduce.

• Only a few plants self-pollinate.Examples include peanuts, orchids,peas and sunflowers.

Self Pollination