Flower Features and Flowering Plants

How Plants Reproduce through Flowers  

Most plants grow flowers, and flowers are how flowering plants make new plants.  

Flowers make pollen and receive pollen from other flowers so seeds and fruits can grow.

Flowers have colours, shapes and scents that attract animals and the animals help spread pollen around to other flowers. These animals are called pollinators. 

[Image: Callistemon blooming outside of the  Discovery Centre in Centennial Park]

Parts of a flower  

[Image: Flower anatomy diagram. RBGSYD]

Every flower has special parts that work together to make seeds. Some parts protect the flower, some make pollen, and others grow into fruit.

Petal – colourful, often scented, attracts pollinators like birds, insects, and bats

Stamen – male part (anther + filament) that makes pollen

Pistil/carpel – female part (stigma, style, ovary). The stigma catches pollen, which travels down the style to the ovary where seeds develop

Sepals (calyx) – small leaf-like parts that protect the flower when it is still a bud

Flowers and Pollinators  

Animals move pollen from one flower to another and this helps plants to make seeds. When pollen reaches the ovary, seeds can be made and grow into new plants. 

[Image: Pigface flower]

Different flowers attract different pollinators:

• Bright red and yellow flowers often attract birds
• Sweet-smelling flowers attract bees, butterflies, and moths
• Pale or night-blooming flowers attract bats and moths

Animals that are pollinators get food (nectar and pollen) from flowers. In return, the plant gets help spreading pollen to make seeds. 

[Image: Hibiscus flower]

Grass Trees – Unique Flowering Plants 

[Image: Grass trees]

Grass trees are flowering plants found only in Australia. They are ancient plants that can live for hundreds of years.

• Grass trees are not really grasses or trees but they belong to a special group of flowering plants
• Grass trees often flower after fire, making tall flower spikes that grow taller than a person
• The flower spikes are covered in tiny white flowers which make nectar that feeds insects, birds, and small mammals
• A ‘skirt’ of long, thin leaves protects the plant from fire and provides habitat for insects and small animals

First Nations Knowledge: Grass trees hold deep cultural and ecological knowledge, showing how people and plants are connected.  

Traditional uses for grass trees include:

• Very strong glue made using resin from the trunk
• Flower spikes used for spear making
• Nectar used to make a sweet drink