Flowers

plants · reproduction · nature · pollinators

Four special layers. Most flowers have four circular levels wrapped around the end of a stalk, kind of like layers of a cake. From outside to inside, you have sepals (which protect the flower), petals (the colorful part), stamens (the male part that makes pollen), and the gynoecia (the female part that receives pollen).

Pollinators love petals. Bright petals and sweet smells are like a flower's advertisement to bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. When these insects visit to drink nectar, they accidentally pick up pollen and carry it to the next flower, which is exactly what the flower wants.

Pollen's amazing journey. Pollen is the dusty powder made by stamens that contains the plant's male cells. When pollen reaches the gynoecia of another flower, it travels down to meet the egg, and that's how flowers can make seeds and new plants.

Groups have special names. When multiple flowers grow together in a bunch on the same plant, scientists call that group an inflorescence. Sunflowers, for example, are actually thousands of tiny flowers packed together in one big circle.