---
title: "Plant Reproduction"
description: "Describe the structure of a flower and explain the processes of wind and insect pollination, fertilisation, seed and fruit formation, and seed dispersal in plants"
canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/plant-reproduction-mt_ck57CDFGet
source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/plant-reproduction-mt_ck57CDFGet.md
retrieved: 2026-10-19
---

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# Plant Reproduction

Describe the structure of a flower and explain the processes of wind and insect pollination, fertilisation, seed and fruit formation, and seed dispersal in plants

Subject: Science · Area: Organisms & Life Processes · Ages 12 to 13
Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/plant-reproduction-mt_ck57CDFGet

## Ready when they can

- Labels the main parts of a flower (sepals, petals, stamens, carpel, ovary, ovule)
- Compares wind-pollinated and insect-pollinated flowers and explains adaptations of each
- Traces the journey from pollination to seed dispersal
- Identifies and explains at least two methods of seed dispersal

## Lesson: How Flowers Make Seeds

A flower's job is to make seeds. Sepals are the tough green parts that wrap around the bud before it opens. Petals sit inside the sepals, often bright and colourful. Inside the petals are the stamens, the male parts of the flower. Each stamen has a thin filament holding up an anther, and the anther makes pollen.

*(drawing: The journey from a grain of pollen to a dispersed seed happens in stages.)*

In the centre of the flower sits the carpel, the female part. The carpel has a sticky stigma on top, a style below it, and an ovary at the bottom holding one or more ovules. When a pollen grain lands on the stigma, it grows a thin tube down through the style. A sperm nucleus travels down that tube and joins with the egg cell inside an ovule. That joining is called fertilisation.

**Example.** Grass flowers are pollinated by wind. They have small, dull petals or none at all, make no scent or nectar, and produce huge amounts of light, smooth pollen that blows easily. Their feathery stigmas hang outside the flower to catch passing pollen. Buttercups are pollinated by insects instead. They have bright yellow petals, a scent, and nectar to reward visiting insects, and their pollen is heavier and sticky so it clings to an insect's body.

**Tip.** Once a seed forms, the ovary around it becomes the fruit. The seed then needs to travel away from the parent plant. If it just dropped straight down, it would compete with the parent for light, water, and space. Wind, animals, and even exploding pods all carry seeds to new ground.

**Recap.** Pollination brings pollen to the stigma, fertilisation joins it with the egg cell inside the ovule, and the seed that forms then disperses away from the parent plant.

## Practice

8 questions on this page, each with its working shown.

## Needs first

- [Pollination & Seed Dispersal](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/pollination-and-seed-dispersal-mt_WNBHZ1d94L)
- [Plant & Animal Reproduction](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/plant-and-animal-reproduction-mt_yNWt3GQBNp)

## Opens up

- [Land Plants: Vascular Tissue and a Life Cycle That Alternates](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/land-plants-vascular-tissue-and-a-life-cycle-that-alternates-mt_DFtQ2mCZSm)
- [Plant growth responses: tropisms and the hormones behind them](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/plant-growth-responses-tropisms-and-the-hormones-behind-them-mt_q1N7OG2_6j)