Answer 1:
Some plants make flowers to help with
reproduction. The flowers can have just female
parts, just male parts, or both. Most of the
flowers you know probably have both.
The male parts make pollen. The female parts
make ovules (eggs). The flowers usually have
some way to attract animals to pollinate them.
The pollinators may be bees, moths, birds
(especially hummingbirds), bats, or other
animals. The animals are attracted to the
flowers and drink their nectar (sugar water). When
they are drinking, they get coated with pollen.
When they go to the next flower, that pollen is
spread to the egg cells of the next plant. Each
fertilized ovule becomes a seed.
Flowers can use smells, colors, patterns, and
other signals to attract pollinators. Some plants
are pollinated by flies. They can smell like
rotting dead things. The flies like it.
Why should flowering plants go to all the
trouble to use pollinators? Well, if they
didn’t exchange pollen, all of their seeds would
be pretty much alike. If the environment for the
next generation changed in a way that was not good
for the parent plant, it wouldn’t be good for any
of their offspring either.
Why do you think it helps the plant if the
pollinator specializes on only their species?
You may want to study plant ecology.
Thanks for asking,
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