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- 75% of plants need an animals help to pollinate
- 1/3 of food are created by pollinators
- Pollination produces $20 billion worth of products
- 1 thousand of all pollinators are birds, bats, and mammals

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Bill Nye  The Science Guy   S04E10   Flowers

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Uploaded by Fatimah SAYEGH on 2016-04-25.

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Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma. The goal of every living organism, including plants, is to create offspring for the next generation. One of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds. Seeds contain the genetic information to produce a new plant.

Flowers are the tools that plants use to make their seeds. The basic parts of the flower are shown in the diagram below.

Seeds can only be produced when pollen is transferred between flowers of the same species. A species is defined a population of individuals capable of interbreeding freely with one another but because of geographic, reproductive, or other barriers, they do not interbreed with members of other species.

How does pollen get from one flower to another? Flowers must rely on vectors to move pollen. These vectors can include wind, water, birds, insects, butterflies, bats, and other animals that visit flowers. We call animals or insects that transfer pollen from plant to plant "pollinators".

Pollination is usually the unintended consequence of an animal's activity on a flower. The pollinator is often eating or collecting pollen for its protein and other nutritional characteristics or it is sipping nectar from the flower when pollen grains attach themselves to the animal's body. When the animal visits another flower for the same reason, pollen can fall off onto the flower's stigma and may result in successful reproduction of the flower.

Referring to the animated image, pollen from the anthers of Flower 1 is deposited on the stigma of Flower 2. 0nce on the stigma, pollen may "germinate," which means that a "pollen tube" forms on the sticky surface of the stigma and grows down into the ovule of the plant.

This growth can result in:

Successful fertilization of the flower and the growth of seeds and fruit; or,

A plant can be only partially fertilized, in which the fruit and/or seeds do not fully develop; or,

The plant can completely fail to be pollinated, and may not reproduce at all.

Plants can be:

Self-pollinating - the plant can fertilize itself; or,

Cross-pollinating - the plant needs a vector (a pollinator or the wind) to get the pollen to another flower of the same species.

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Home Celebrating Wildflowers Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma. The goal of every living organism, including plants, is to create offspring for the next generation. One of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds.

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Pollination

What does the word "pollination" mean?
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from a stamen to a pistil. Pollination starts the production of seeds. What about plants that don't have flowers?
Some plants don't have flowers. Plants such as mosses and ferns reproduce by spores. Cone-bearing plants, like pine or spruce trees for example, reproduce by means of pollen that is produced by a male cone and travels by wind to a female cone of the same species. The seeds then develop in the female cone. Find out more about pollinators!

Sing a Pollination Song!

Teachers-download lesson plans to use in your classroom!

Pollination is very important. It leads to the creation of new seeds that grow into new plants.

But how does pollination work? Well, it all begins in the flower. Flowering plants have several different parts that are important in pollination. Flowers have male parts called stamens that produce a sticky powder called pollen. Flowers also have a female part called the pistil. The top of the pistil is called the stigma, and is often sticky. Seeds are made at the base of the pistil, in the ovule.

To be pollinated, pollen must be moved from a stamen to the stigma. When pollen from a plant's stamen is transferred to that same plant's stigma, it is called self-pollination. When pollen from a plant's stamen is transferred to a different plant's stigma, it is called cross-pollination. Cross-pollination produces stronger plants. The plants must be of the same species. For example, only pollen from a daisy can pollinate another daisy. Pollen from a rose or an apple tree would not work.

But how does pollen from one plant get moved to another?

How Do Plants Get Pollinated?

Pollination occurs in several ways. People can transfer pollen from one flower to another, but most plants are pollinated without any help from people. Usually plants rely on animals or the wind to pollinate them.

When animals such as bees, butterflies, moths, flies, and hummingbirds pollinate plants, it's accidental. They are not trying to pollinate the plant. Usually they are at the plant to get food, the sticky pollen or a sweet nectar made at the base of the petals. When feeding, the animals accidentally rub against the stamens and get pollen stuck all over themselves. When they move to another flower to feed, some of the pollen can rub off onto this new plant's stigma.

Plants that are pollinated by animals often are brightly colored and have a strong smell to attract the animal pollinators.

Another way plants are pollinated is by the wind. The wind picks up pollen from one plant and blows it onto another.

Plants that are pollinated by wind often have long stamens and pistils. Since they do not need to attract animal pollinators, they can be dully colored, unscented, and with small or no petals since no insect needs to land on them.

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What does the word "pollination" mean? Pollination is the transfer of pollen from a stamen to a pistil. Pollination starts the production of seeds. What about plants that don't have flowers? Some plants don't have flowers. Plants such as mosses and ferns reproduce by spores.