����ý

• Insect-pollination of flowering plants is responsible for the majority of the world’s flowering diversity and is an essential part of plant reproduction.

• Flowers have bright colours, smells and nectar which encourage pollinators to pay them a visit.

• Honeybees along with 1,500 other insect species pollinate plants in the UK.

Flowering plants reproduce sexually through a process called pollination. The flowers contain male sex organs called stamens and female sex organs called pistils. The male and female sex cells produced from the male and female sex organs must meet for reproduction to begin.

'Flowering plants' includes fruit plants and trees which produce flowers as well as fruit.

• The male gametes are contained in the pollen grains produced in the anther.

• The female gametes (egg cells or ova) are produced in the ovule found in the ovary.

Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma. The aim of most living organisms, including plants, is to produce offspring for the next generation. One of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds. Seeds contain the nutrition and all the genetic instructions to grow into an adult plant.

There are two types of pollination:

Self-pollination: The pollen grain lands on the same flower it originated from.

Cross-pollination: The pollen grain lands on a different flower to the one it originated from.

As plants cannot move like animals they must adopt a different method of transferring these pollen grains.

• Wind-pollinated plants let their pollen blow in the wind and hope that their pollen grains reach another plant for pollination.

• Insect-pollinated plants use insects and other animals to carry their pollen grains to other plants.

The vast majority of plants depend on animals to transfer the pollen for them. 'Insect-pollinated' includes plants which are pollinated by birds and other small animals.

Insect-pollinated flowers are different in structure from wind-pollinated flowers.

Many crops depend on pollination by insects to survive. Bees, butterflies, beetles, moths and flies are all pollinators. Without them, food security would be threatened and there would be a worldwide shortage of fruit; especially apples, plums and pears. Many plant species could also decline or become extinct along with the organisms that directly or indirectly depend on them.

Bees are facing many threats globally. These include habitat loss, climate change, toxic pesticides and disease. The culmination of these makes an unpredictable future for bees and many other pollinators.

Looking for more KS3 resources? This short video clip looks at reproduction in various plants and animals using beautiful wildlife footage and summary graphics.

����ý Teach has thousands of free, curriculum-linked resources to help deliver lessons - all arranged by subject and age group.