Flowers have male and female parts (sometimes flowers have just one type or the other) which make seeds. The male parts, or stamens, make tiny, dust-like grains called pollen. For the flowering plant to reproduce, its pollen must reach the female parts, or carpels, of a plant of the same kind. This is called pollination.

Pollen

Pollen is spread in different ways. Colourful, scented flowers attract insects to their sweet nectar. Pollen brushes on to the insect, which it then carries to another flower’s female parts. Dangling catkins use the wind to spread pollen. Their pollen grains look like tiny balloons or parachutes. Others have spikes or hooks to grip on to an insect’s body.

Seeds

When they receive pollen, the female parts of a flower can then start to make their seeds. The ovary swells and becomes the fruit containing the seeds. Pips in an orange, a nut’s kernel, peas in a pod or an avocado’s “stone” are all different kinds of seed.

The tasty fruits that surround the seeds are attractive to fruit-eating animals. The animals feed on the soft parts of the fruit and discard the seed—or pass it out of their bodies in their droppings. Squirrels bury nuts in the ground to eat later, but then forget where they are. So the seeds inside are accidentally planted in the soil.

Some seeds are spread by the wind. They include the dandelion’s fluffy “parachutes” and the twirling wings of the maple or sycamore seed. Other seeds may be sticky or have hooks on them. These may catch on an animal’s body and be carried by them. Some plants such as the hazel throw out their seeds in a mini-explosion.

Germination

A seed that reaches warm, damp soil may begin to grow or germinate. The seed contains a tiny root and a shoot. It also has a store of food for the new plant until grows leaves of its own. The baby plant’s roots spread downwards, its stem grows taller and it unfurls its first leaves.

Asexual reproduction

Flowering plants do not always reproduce by seeds. Sometimes a part of the plant—for example, a strawberry runner—grows a new shoot and root. It then develops into a whole new plant. This is known as asexual reproduction.