How Flowers Make Seeds (1963)

these three garden plants share a common characteristic if we wait a few days we see that they have all produced flowers we call these flowering plants there are flowering plants of many kinds some like this Snapdragon are only a foot or two high but there also are larger flowering plants like this lilac bush and still larger ones like this catalpa tree many other trees including this Maple are also flowering plants early in the spring before the leaves of the maple are out we can see the flowers the maple flowers are very tiny but they are flowers much like the others we have seen not all plants are flowering plants some trees like this Pine do not have flowers ferns are not flowering plants either and plants such as mushrooms don't have flowers flowers are found only on certain types of plants let's look at this Lily to learn more about flowers flowers are usually the most attractive parts of a plant they are also the parts responsible for the reproduction of new plants how is a flower involved in reproduction let's watch one over a period of time and see after a few days the flower begins to wilt soon the outer parts fall off what is left looks like a long thin stalk the thick part becomes the fruit of the lily as the weeks go by this part grows larger and larger a fruit we know produces seeds when the fruit is full grown and it is opened we can see the seeds inside when the Lily seeds are planted we know that they may after several months grow into New Lies just like the one the seeds came from these lies May then produce new flowers which in turn May produce new seeds by producing new seeds flowers take part in the reproduction of flowering plants to understand how flowers produce seeds we must learn more about the parts of a flower the large showy parts of Most flowers are the petals and seil these are the three Petals of the lily somewhat smaller are the three seil in the Lily and some other flowers the seil and petals look very much the same in the very center of the flower are the stamans and a pistol the parts that produce the seeds in the Lily there are several stamans but only one pistol some flowers have more than one pistol the pistol has a round fuzzy TI each staman has at the top a sacklike structure that produces pollen using the probe we can transfer some of the pollen from a staman to the pistol where it clings to The Fuzzy tip carrying pollen from stam to Pistol is the first step in producing a seed often this is done by bees and other insects an insect may carry pollen from a stam to a pistol in the same flower many insects carry pollen of one flower to the pistol of another flower pollen may also be carried from flower to flour by the wind the next step in producing a seed occurs inside the pistol cutting it open helps us see the inside we can show what happens in a pistol once pollen has been deposited on the tip from the pollen grains tubes grow down the neck of the pistol toward the egg-shaped bodies in the base these are called ovules eventually the tubes reach the ovules and sperm cells from the tubes go inside each ovule May then grow into a seed this is how seeds are produced in the Lily remember stamans and pistols are necessary to make seeds the large pistol and smaller stamans of this bell flower are easy to see now let's look at a daisy another kind of flower we usually think of each Blossom as a single flower actually this is a cluster of many flowers called a head each part that looks like a petal is a separate flower called a ray flower at this end of each Ray flow are the seed producing Parts in the center of the cluster are flowers of another type called disc flowers each of these also has seed producing Parts like the other flowers we've seen so the daisy is a flower composed of many flowers we call this a composite flower another composite flower is the dandelion the dandelion head is also a cluster of many tiny flowers dandelions are commonly found growing in Open Fields and Lawns usually along with grass This Grass has tall stems that are a part of each grass plant at the top of each stem are grass flowers they do not look like other flowers we've seen because they have no petals or seil but each grass flower has seed producing parts stamans and pistols that's what makes them flowers flowers of this kind can be found on all the plants we call grasses these are the grass plants we call wheat here are the pistols and stamans of wheat flowers the seeds they produce are what we call grains of wheat similar flowers can be found on the corn plant which is another member of the grass family on the corn plant all the stamms are together at the top of the stock forming what we call the tassel lower down on the stalk sticking out from each ear are the fine thread we call Corn silks these are the tips of long thin pistols the pistols extend deep into the ear to Tiny ovules from which seeds form when the seeds are grown we recognize them as kernels of corn each threadlike pistol is linked to a single kernel these are the seeds formed by the flowers of the Corn plant here are our seeds in a cucumber which is the fruit of the cucumber plant if we look at a cucumber plant growing in early summer we can see the flowers that produce the seeds there are two kinds of flowers on this plant some of the flowers like this one have no stamans this kind of flower has only a pistol where does the pollen come from needed to produce seeds the pollen comes from from other flowers on the same plant like this one this kind of flower has stamans but no pistal the stamms we know produce the pollen so on the same cucumber plant two kinds of flowers take part in producing seeds there are many kinds of flowering plants all flowering plants remember May grow from seeds which form in the flowers the seed produ producing parts of the plants