1. Flowers

2. What is the purpose of a flower?
To aid in pollination, and…
To protect the seed within.

3. Flowers possess both male & female parts…
petal
colors attract pollinators, serve as landing pads
pistil
female part of a flower, made up of stigma, style, ovary

4. What is pollination?
Moving pollen (sperm) from the stamen to the pistil.
The stigma is sticky so that pollen can land on it.
In gymnosperms, pollen travels from the male cone to the female cone.
Cross pollination: Pollen from one flower reaches the pistil of another.
Increases genetic diversity

5. Pollinators. Watch How Pollen Travels From One Flower To Another
Pollinators. Watch How Pollen Travels From One Flower To Another. Explain three different relationships between flowers and their pollinators.

6. What is fertilization?
After pollination occurs, a pollen tube begins to grow down toward the ovary.
The haploid nucleus of the pollen grain then travels through the pollen tube toward the ovary, where fertilization occurs.
Fertilization is the fusion of sperm (pollen) and egg.
Fertilization may occur days or weeks after pollination!

7. What is a fruit? Once it has been fertilized, the ovary
component of the
flower matures into
a fruit.
**yes, a fruit is a ripened ovary! Yum, yum!**

8. A fruit serves 2 important functions:
to protect the seeds during their maturation, and
to effectively disperse the mature seeds.

9. Other Unique Plant Adaptations…
Most of the adaptations we have studied so far have dealt with reproduction. Plants have also developed adaptations for obtaining food, growth, etc. After watching the video clips, (mangrove forest, climbing plants, pitcher plants, hoverfly, etc.) which adaptations did you find most interesting?