Flowering or non-flowering plant?
Look for flowers and seeds on ten plants with a hand lens, then sort them into flowering and non-flowering plants. Does every plant have seeds?
Core concept
In short: Sort plants into those that have flowers and those that never flower.
Flowering plants make flowers and seeds inside fruits; non-flowering plants never flower and make spores (ferns, mosses) or bare seeds on cones (pine, cycas)
Topic: Plants
Plants can be sorted into two big groups. Flowering plants, like mustard, rice and the mango tree, make flowers. After a flower is pollinated it turns into a fruit, with seeds inside it. Non-flowering plants never make flowers. Some, like ferns and mosses, have no seeds at all: they spread by tiny spores, as fine as dust, often found under their leaves or in little capsules. Others, like the pine tree and cycas, make seeds, but the seeds lie bare on cones instead of inside fruits. In this lab you look for flowers and seeds before you sort each plant.
What you will learn
- Classify plants as flowering or non-flowering.
- Explain that flowering plants make seeds inside fruits.
- Describe how ferns and mosses spread by spores, and how pines and cycas carry bare seeds on cones.
- Give examples of both groups found in Nepal.
Before you start
- Know the main parts of a plant: root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit and seed.
Materials
- Mustard, rice and maize plants, a rose, a sunflower, a mango, a pine cone, a cycas leaf, a fern and some moss
Equipment
- A hand lens, a sheet of white paper (to catch fern spores)
Procedure
- Pick a plant card and look for flowers, and for where its seeds are.
- Do this for at least six plants, including a fern and a pine tree.
- Sort every plant into flowering or non-flowering.