Rocket has pinned six pictures above the Windowsill: a bee, a butterfly, a moth, a bat, a hummingbird and a pine branch.
"Six pollen carriers," he says. "But the pine tree is not an animal."
"What do you notice about pine flowers?" Raven asks. "Tiny, green, no petals, no scent."
"So nobody is invited," Rocket says. "Who carries the pollen?" Nova drifts to the open window, and the curtain lifts.
"Wind," Rocket says. "Pine trees mail their pollen on the breeze."
Raven points at a dandelion head outside. "Seeds travel too. Guess how those get around."
Bees cannot see red, so bee flowers are usually blue, yellow or other colors. Butterflies visit bright, strongly scented flowers that open by day.
Moths work in the late afternoon and night. Their flowers are pale or white and flat, so a moth can land.
In tropics and deserts, bats pollinate night flowers that are large, pale, strongly scented and full of nectar.
Hummingbirds visit sturdy, brightly colored flowers with a curved tube shape and little scent. Pollen lands on the bird's head and neck.
Wind-pollinated plants, such as grasses, maples, oaks and conifers, make small green flowers. They have little or no petals, no nectar and no scent.
Instead they make large amounts of lightweight pollen, and they often flower in early spring before leaves can block the wind.
The fruit has a single purpose: seed dispersal. Seeds need to travel far from the parent plant to find less crowded places to grow.
Wind-dispersed fruits are lightweight and may have wing-like parts. Some have a parachute-like structure. Dandelion seeds have hairy, nearly weightless tufts.
Water-dispersed seeds sit in light fruit that floats. Willow and silver birch make lightweight fruit that can float away.
Animals eat fruit, and the seeds pass through and are dropped some distance away. Squirrels bury acorns and sometimes forget them.
Some fruits, like the cocklebur, have hooks that catch on an animal's coat and ride to a new place.
| How the seed travels | Structure that helps | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Wind | Wings, parachutes or hairy tufts; very light | Dandelion, maple |
| Water | Light fruit that floats | Willow, silver birch |
| Animals, eaten | Tasty fruit around the seed | Berries carried by birds |
| Animals, buried | A hard seed worth storing | Acorns buried by squirrels |
| Animals, hitchhiking | Hooks or sticky parts | Cocklebur on a coat |
| Statement | True or false? |
|---|---|
| Bee-pollinated flowers are usually red. | ? |
| Moth-pollinated flowers are often pale and open at night. | ? |
| Seeds that travel by water sit in fruit that floats. | ? |
| Seeds grow best when they stay right beside the parent plant. | ? |
Sharp matching. Tomorrow is Windowsill Lab: a flower under the lens and a paper seed that flies.