The flower is the reproductive part of the plant. It makes seeds after pollination and fertilization have taken place.

Brightly coloured flowers attract insects; these get sweet sticky nectar from the plant and as they do so they carry pollen for the plant. When the pollen, made in the male part of a flower, the stamen, lands on the female stigma, pollination has taken place. The pollen grain then grows down to the ovary where it fertilizes the egg cell in the ovule to make a seed.

Seeds can be dispersed in a variety of ways, some are blown by the wind, some fired out of a seed pod, some stick to the fur of animals, others are eaten and pass through an animal before being dropped somewhere else. The seeds are adapted to the way they are dispersed, for example "helicopters" are carried by the wind.

Brightly coloured fruits are eaten by animals and the seeds are dropped far away from the parent plant.

	Next time you eat a piece of fruit, cut it in half and look at the way the seeds are arranged inside.
	Go to reference 2 for some examples of seed dispersal.

Links:

	Reference 1 BBC Bitesize animation of pollination and fertilization. Animation of a flower being pollinated and fertilized.
	Reference 2 Pollination How plants found near Framlingham are pollinated.
	Reference 3 Seed dispersal Some examples of how different seeds are dispersed by the children of Sir Robert Hitcham's school in Framlingham.