Can't Live Without Me |
Flowers are used by a plant to have kids....er.....seeds, and new baby plants. Male parts of the flower make pollen, which is a yellow dust that contains all kinds of information on being a plant just like Dad. Female parts make ovules, which contain all kinds of information on how to be just like Ma. Nature likes to mix information from both parents when it makes a kid; it's the same for plants as it is with animals. If the information didn't get mixed, all the kids would be identical to the single parent who made them... all the flowers would be the same shape, the same height, the same color.....BORING!
The problem...how do you get the pollen and the seed together? It is not like they can get together in the same place like animals. Imagine a strange rose bush pulling up to your garden gate and asking the plant in your yard for a date? Tell the bush to have her back by 10.00pm and keep his thorns to himself? Nah....
So plants reckoned.. "If I can't move from this spot, why can't I get someone else to carry my pollen over to that nice little sapling over there, swaying in the breeze." But how??
The plants have found several ways to do it. Oak trees and pine trees use the wind, scattering their pollen in clouds hoping that some would hit where needed. Others bribe insects to carry the pollen away. The bribe is honey money, so to speak. The insect, perhaps a butterfly, is attracted by the fragrance or color of the flower, which tells it that there is nectar to be had. Nectar is the butterflies food. So the butterfly does a quick sniff, or maybe is tempted by the bright color of the flower, and arrives for the free gift. Butterflies use their proboscis to collect the nectar.
View a video clip of the butterfly Proboscis
But not so fast, Ms. Butterfly. The nectar is hidden way, way down, and you are going to have to go down deep inside, amongst those sticky-up stamen things. And Mr. Butterfly gets some pollen on his wings which is produced on the stamens. Stamens are the male part of the flower, which produce the pollen, which has all the information on the Dad-part of the flower. So, after visiting flower number one, the butterfly goes to visit flower number two. And some of the pollen from the first flower gets spilled into the second flower. The second flower might also give some pollen to the butterfly, but with luck, some of the pollen from the first flower will land on the stigma. The stigma is the female part of the flower, and is designed to carry the pollen down to a deeply hidden ovary at the base of the style, which is a tube connecting the ovary to the stigma.
View a Video of a Butterfly Eating
When the pollen enters the ovary it forms seeds which help to make new flowers. If it wasn't for pollinators like butterflies and bees, we would not have flowers, fruit and many other kinds of plants.
To the Adventures of Flutter the Butterfly