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Grow It 3-5 / Week 06 / Tuesday
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Week 06 · Flowers and Pollinators

Tuesday

From pollen to seed
// How flowers make seeds with a little help
⏱ about 15 min

Tuesday: From Pollen to Seed

Rocket watches his bean plant. "When does it make new beans?" he asks. "I want seeds!"

Raven points to a bean flower picture. "What do you notice? Seeds start inside the flower."

Nova hovers nearby. "Pollen has to make a trip first," she says. "From which part to which part?"

Rocket checks his chart. "Anther to stigma!"

Pollination

Pollination is moving pollen from an anther to a stigma.

Wind can move pollen. Pollinators can move pollen too.

Seeds form only when the pollen comes from the same kind of plant.

What happens next

Pollen lands on the sticky stigma.

A pollen tube grows down into the ovule.

If this works, the ovule grows into a seed.

The ovary around the seeds grows into the fruit.

A fruit is the seeds plus the ovary wall.

FLOWER TO FRUIT
  • ?Pollen lands on the stigma.
  • ?A pollen tube grows down.
  • ?An ovule grows into a seed.
  • ?The ovary grows into a fruit.
WHY THIS EXERCISEPollination leads to seeds, and the ovary becomes the fruit.
SEED OR FRUIT?
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
What does an ovule grow into?
What does the ovary grow into?
Seeds are inside an apple. What part of the flower was the apple?
StatementTrue or false?
Pollination moves pollen from an anther to a stigma.?
Wind can move pollen.?
Pollen from any plant can make seeds in any flower.?
A fruit holds seeds inside.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEPollen from the same kind of plant leads to seeds and fruit.
Try it: seeds inside fruit
A grown-up cuts an apple in half across the middle.
The grown-up cuts a cucumber in half the same way.
Look at the seeds inside each one. Count the apple seeds.
These seeds grew from ovules. The fruit grew from the ovary.
Safety first
Only a grown-up uses the knife.
Look only. Nothing is tasted in this activity.
Wash your hands when you are done.
How many seeds did you count in the apple? Type a number.
WHY THIS EXERCISEEvery seed you see grew from an ovule inside the flower.
A pollen ____ grows down to the ovule.
An ovule grows into a ____.
Draw the cut apple or cucumber. Label the seeds and the fruit wall.

Super seed sleuthing! Tomorrow we find out why animals visit flowers at all.

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