From flower to seed

Flowers are the reproductive parts of many plants. Pollen grains, which carry the male gametes, are made in the anthers. Pollination is the transfer of pollen to the stigma, by insects such as bees, by birds or by the wind. A pollen grain on the stigma grows a tube down through the style to an ovule inside the ovary. The male gamete travels down the tube and joins the egg cell in the ovule: fertilisation. The fertilised ovule grows into a seed and the ovary swells into a fruit around it. Seeds are then dispersed, and in the right conditions each germinates into a new plant.