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Flowers
What an enormous range of colours, shapes, sizes and textures of flowers there are. And don't let's forget all the wonderful and different scents. A summer border in full bloom is truly a marvel to behold. However, mother nature did not bless flowers with all these adornments for our pleasure alone. Or did she? There are essential reasons for all these marvellous attributes which are critical to plant species survival. The sole purpose of a flower is to ensure reproduction of the species for generations to come, and they do it very well. Flowers are no more than short branches with specially adapted leaves that forms all the components of a flower which are: All these vital parts of a flower enable pollination to take place, which is essential for a plant to bear fruit or produce seeds. Pollination takes place when pollen lands on a stigma by a pollinator, an insect or by wind. The stigma, being sticky, ensures the pollen adheres and germinates. The germinating pollen produces pollen tubes that grow into the stigma and down the style. Fertilisation takes place when the male cells travel down the pollen tubes and reach the awaiting eggs in the ovule.
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