The Wonders of Pollination

In the early spring flowers start to bloom. Did you know that vegetables and trees bloom too? It’s true! When the weather warms up, start to look for flowers on vegetable plants and trees. All flowering plants need to be pollinated to develop food for you to eat and seeds needed for the next generation of flowers and plants.

In order to pollinate a flower or plant, pollen from the anthers of one flower must stick to the stigma of another flower. Fertilization in the flower ensues, and fruit and seeds begin to develop. 

Using their fragrant aroma, flowers attract pollinators such as honeybees, butterflies, wasps, ants, birds, bats, and other animals.

When honey bees suck the nectar from a flower, pollen on the flower's anthers sticks to their hairy legs and body.

When the bee moves on from that flower and chooses another flower, it leaves pollen residue on the stigma of that new flower. Once the pollen travels down the flower, the flower becomes fertilized and then continues to develop more seeds for new plants.

Sometimes pollinators get sick from pesticides and disease and can’t pollinate flowers. When this happens or when people want to boost their supply of crops, they will hand pollinate flowers.

To hand pollinate, someone will calmly shake a plant and use a small tool like a paintbrush or cotton swab to transfer pollen from one part of a flower to another. 

Some plants, such as oak, birch, and cottonwood, are pollinated by the wind. These plants usually bloom in the early spring, just before the leaves of the plant start to grow. Pollen from wind-pollinated plants is lightweight, so the wind can be more effective when moving the pollen particles from one plant to another.

Some flowers, such as water lilies and orchids, use water to lead insects inside their flowers. Once the insect is trapped, the pollen on their bodies helps pollinate their flowers. Sometimes the insect is wounded and doesn’t survive!

Pollination is a very important way for flowers and plants to grow and thrive. Even though pollination can happen in a lot of different ways, most pollination is done by animals. This has huge value to plants and people. When pollination is done by animals, we enjoy more plant diversity. We see proof of this when flowers bloom in lots of amazing colors and scents.