​Why are flowers so colorful?

​Flowers are brightly colored to attract insects and birds. They do this because the insects and birds help plants to reproduce. Flowers are the reproductive organs of plants.

​The parts of a flower

​Flowers come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. But you can usually find the same parts in most flowers.

​The petals are usually the most colorful part of the flower. They attract insects or birds to the flower. Some flowers produce scents (smells), which also help to attract insects.

​Not all flowers produce smells that we like. This flower is a stapelia. It has a scent like rotting meat, and attracts flies.

​The insects or birds feed on sweet, sugary nectar produced at the base of the petals. They may also eat some of the pollen, produced in the anthers. The pollen contains the male gametes of the flower.

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The female gametes are inside the ovules, which are inside the ovaries.

Unlike animals, many plants produce both male gametes and female gametes.

​Name the part of the flower

A - Stigma

​B - Style

​C - Petal

​D - Ovule

​E - Sepal

​F - Ovary

Question 1

Many people use the word ‘flower’ when they really mean ‘plant’. Explain the difference between a plant and a flower.​

Question 2

Insects can often smell flowers from hundreds of metres away. Suggest how the scent from the flowers spreads out into the air around them.

Answer 1

A plant is a complete organism; it has roots, stems, leaves and sometimes flowers. A flower is an organ, a part of a plant. Flowers are organs that carry out sexual reproduction.

Answer 2

The scent of a flower is made up of molecules of chemicals that disperse through the air. The molecules may be carried by air currents. They can also diffuse through the air, as the molecules move randomly about and spread in all directions.

Homework​

Workbook Exercise 1.4 Comparing two flowers​