Seed formation almost always begins with flowers. Most flowers make a powdery stuff called pollen. Pollen is taken from one flower and delivered to another by the wind, or by hummingbirds, bats, moths, or other animals. When pollen lands on the new flower, that flower begins to become a fruit with seeds inside. Every fruit you eat was once a flower!

Fruits always have seeds in them. Seeds are the baby plants, and the fruit surrounding them does a number of things for the baby plants. Fruits can attract animals to eat them, which helps carry the seeds far away from the parent plant, or decaying fruits can provide nourishment to the seeds when they sprout.

Seeds are baby plants, and they usually have a very hard outer covering that lets them survive for a long time without water or soil. The baby plant inside will sprout out of the protective covering when conditions are right. Some seeds can survive without sprouting for over a hundred years, and some can survive being eaten by animals or burned in a fire!

So, after flowers are pollinated, they start to become fruits. Fruits contain seeds, which are the plants new offspring. The plant loads the fruit with nutrients, and it covers the seeds in hard, protective coatings. When the seeds are in the right conditions, the baby plants inside break out of their protective coats and start to grow into a new plant. Excellent question!