Pollination & Seed Dispersal
Understand the life cycle of flowering plants including pollination, seed formation, and seed dispersal
What a learner can do afterwards
- Describe the stages: pollination → fertilisation → seed formation → seed dispersal
- Explain at least two methods of seed dispersal (wind, animal, water, explosion)
- Describe pollination as pollen moving from an anther to a stigma, within one flower or between flowers, often carried by insects or wind
1 · Read
You have learned that flowers help plants make seeds. Pollination moves pollen from an anther, which makes pollen, to a stigma, where pollen can land. This can happen within one flower or between flowers. Bees and other insects can carry pollen on their bodies. Wind carries pollen for some flowering plants.
After pollination, a pollen grain can grow a tube towards an ovule inside the flower. An ovule contains an egg cell. A male cell from pollen travels through the tube and joins the egg cell. This joining is fertilisation. The ovule can develop into a seed. The ovary, which holds the ovules, can grow into a fruit around the seeds.
Seed dispersal moves seeds away from the parent plant. Fluff or wings catch moving air, helping wind carry light seeds or fruits. Hooks catch on fur, so an animal can carry a fruit or seed. Animals may also eat fruit and pass undigested seeds in their poo. A floating fruit can carry a seed inside it as water moves the fruit. Some dry pods burst and scatter seeds.
An animal can help in different ways. A bee moving pollen to a stigma helps pollination. A dog carrying a burr that holds seeds helps seed dispersal. Check what moves: pollen or seeds.
Video correction: The Learn Bright video calls honeybees solitary, meaning they live alone. Honeybees live together in colonies.
Pollination moves pollen to a stigma. Fertilisation joins a male cell with an egg cell. Seeds can develop and later travel by wind, animals, water or bursting pods.
Lesson, questions and flashcards written for this dataset.
Readings and flashcards written for this dataset. Linked video: How bees help plants have sex - Fernanda S. Valdovinos, from TED-Ed.
More to read
What happens after pollen arrives?
Pollen on a stigma tells us that pollen has arrived. It does not tell us that a seed has already formed.
A pollen grain can grow a tube towards an ovule. A male cell travels through the tube. Fertilisation happens when the male cell joins an egg cell inside the ovule.
The ovule can then develop into a seed. The ovary around the ovules can grow into fruit. Pollination, fertilisation and seed formation are different stages. Not every pollinated flower completes them all.
Flowers have different pollen carriers
A bee may brush against anthers while feeding at a flower. Some pollen sticks to its body. When it visits another flower, pollen may touch a stigma.
Other insects, some birds and some bats also carry pollen. Flower colours, smells and nectar can attract these visitors.
Wind carries pollen for other flowering plants, including grasses and oak trees. Their pollen does not need a bee to carry it. Pines use wind too, but pines have cones rather than flowers. A wind-carried grain of pollen is still pollen, not a seed.
Look inside a fruit safely
Ask an adult to cut open a tomato being prepared for food. Look at the seeds inside without putting them in your mouth. Draw their positions. Guess how many there are, then count them with the adult.
To observe a growing plant, use bean seeds sold for planting. Follow the packet directions with an adult and draw the plant as it changes.
Do not taste garden flowers, fruits, leaves or seeds unless a trusted adult has identified them as safe food. Seeds sold for planting are not for eating.
Compare a seed prediction with a count
With an adult, grow a bean plant by following its seed packet. Predict how many new seeds the plant might make. Write the prediction down before you know the result.
Keep a diary of what you observe. Record leaves, flowers and any pods that develop. When pods are ready, ask the adult to help collect and count their seeds.
Compare the count with your prediction. The number of seeds varies. If no pods develop, record that too. Your diary records what happened, even when it differs from your prediction.
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2 · Watch
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Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.