How can flowers be pollinated

When animals such as bees, butterflies, moths, flies, and hummingbirds pollinate plants, it's accidental. They are not trying to pollinate the plant.

Usually they are at the plant to get food, the sticky pollen or a sweet nectar made at the base of the petals. When feeding, the animals accidentally rub against the stamens and get pollen stuck all over themselves. When they move to another flower to feed, some of the pollen can rub off onto this new plant's stigma. Plants that are pollinated by animals often are brightly colored and have a strong smell to attract the animal pollinators.

Another way plants are pollinated is by the wind. The wind picks up pollen from one plant and blows it onto another. Plants that are pollinated by wind often have long stamens and pistils.

Since they do not need to attract animal pollinators, they can be dully colored, unscented, and with small or no petals since no insect needs to land on them. Pollination What does the word "pollination" mean? Pollination is the transfer of pollen from a stamen to a pistil. Pollination starts the production of seeds. The pollen of animal-pollinated plants has a rough surface to help it stick to a pollinator.

Many flowers use colours to attract insects, sometimes helped by coloured guiding marks. Some have ultraviolet marks that can be seen by insects but are invisible to human eyes. Flowers are often shaped to provide a landing platform for visiting insects or to force them to brush against anthers and stigmas. It only has very small petals but big bright red clusters of stamens. Some flowers have scent to attract insects. Many of these scents are pleasing to humans too, but not all — some flowers attract flies with a smell of rotting meat.

Bird-pollinated flowers tend to be large and colourful so birds can see them easily against a background of leaves. Some flowers even change colour to tell birds when to visit. Most bird-pollinated flowers have lots of nectar, often at the bottom of a tube of petals.

Birds need to brush against anthers and stigmas when reaching for the sugary reward with their long beaks. All Articles of this Author. Want to leave a comment? We'd love to hear it. Please note that all comments are moderated.

Anything resembling spam will be deleted. Try to make this a meaningful conversation for all involved. Choose Country Canada United States. Choose Language English. What would you like to search for? Flowers but No Fruit? Try Hand Pollination. So what gives? Do You Need to Hand Pollinate? Top Techniques for Hand Pollination When it comes to pollination, there are two types of plants: those with self-fertile flowers and those with separate male and female flowers. But for good measure, here are two ways you can pollinate a self-fertile plant: Carefully shake the plant or blow on its flowers to stimulate pollen release; or Gently swab the inside of each flower with a small paintbrush or cotton swab to transfer pollen into the pistil middle part of the flower.

How to Pollinate Plants with Separate Male and Female Flowers Plants that produce separate male and female flowers on the same plant include Cantaloupes Cucumbers Pumpkins Squash Watermelons Zucchini In order for these plants to produce fruit, pollen from a male flower must make its way to a female flower.