The Power of Pollinators
Without plants, life as we know it would not exist. Plants give food and shelter to wildlife. Plants give us the oxygen we breathe, the food we eat, and wood and fibre to make shelter and clothing.
Plants and Animals Help Each Other
How plants help animals:
- Shelter – trees and shrubs give animals somewhere to live
- Food – fruits, leaves, and nectar are eaten by animals
How animals help plants:
- Spreading seeds – animals eat fruit and drop seeds in new places
- Spreading pollen – animals move pollen from one flower to another so new seeds and fruits can grow
What is Pollen?
Pollen is a powder made by flowering plants and plants that make cones (e.g. pine trees). The grains of pollen in the powder are very tiny and can only be seen using a microscope. Each type of plant has its own type of pollen grain with a unique shape.
[Image: Bee covered in pollen particles. Wikimedia Commons]
[Image: Digital rendering of microscopic pollen particles. Wikimedia Commons]
Plants use pollen to make new plants. When pollen reaches a plant of the same type, pollination can happen.
- Pollen is essential for flowering plants, including many of the plants people grow for food
- To grow new plants, pollen must be moved from one flower to another. But plants can’t move around, so they need help!
Animals that carry pollen from flower to flower are called pollinators. Insects are excellent pollinators, but birds, mammals, and reptiles can also do this job.
Flowers aren’t just beautiful
[Image: Flower anatomy diagram. RBGSYD]
Each part of a flower has a role in helping plants grow new seeds.
- Petals: Bright colours and scents attract pollinators like bees, birds, and bats.
- Stamen: The male part of the flower. It makes pollen, which needs to be carried to another flower.
- Stigma: The sticky tip of the female part of the flower. It receives pollen during pollination.
- Ovary: Found at the base of the flower. After pollination, it develops into a fruit with seeds, ready to start the cycle again.
How Plants Attract Pollinators
[Image: Grevillea flower]
Flowers use colour, scent, shape, patterns, and nectar to attract pollinators.
Many plants hide nectar deep inside their flowers. Pollinators reach into the flowers to eat the nectar and brush past the flower’s pollen. The pollen sticks to the pollinator and gets delivered to the next flower visited by the animal.
[Image: Honeyeater with eucalyptus flowers]
Some flowers have colours that humans cannot see. Many flowers can reflect the Sun’s ultraviolet (UV) light. This light is invisible to humans but the UV patterns guide pollinators to the flowers.
[Image: dandelion flower under UV light]
How pollination happens:
- An insect lands on one flower before flying to another flower
- Pollen from the first flower is moved to the second flower
[Image: Pollination diagram]
Earth Systems and Pollinators
Plants and pollinators connect all of Earth’s systems:
- Air (atmosphere) – plants make oxygen and pollinators breathe oxygen
- Land (lithosphere) – soil helps plants grow
- Water (hydrosphere) – plants and pollinators need water to live
- Living things (biosphere) – plants and animals rely on each other to survive
Activities
Explore how the parts of a flower work together for pollination and the life cycle of a plant.
- Look closely at the flower diagram and label the following parts: petals, stamen, stigma, ovary.
- Next to each label, write the role it plays in pollination (e.g. petals attract pollinators, stigma receives pollen).
- Compare your answers with a partner.
- Discuss the following questions with your class:
Why are some flower parts especially important for pollinators?
How might different pollinators (e.g. bees, birds, or bats) use flowers in different ways?
What could happen to a habitat or food chain if flowers couldn’t make seeds?
Explore how the parts of a flower work together in life cycle of a plant.
- Look at the Parts of a Flower diagram to remind yourself of the key structures.
- Explore outside in the school grounds or a local park and find three different flowers to study closely.
- Read the list of ‘Scientific drawing rules’ below.
- Draw a scientific diagram of each flower, taking care to look at the whole plant. Notice the size, shape, and arrangement of the parts of the flower.
- Draw and label as many parts of the plant as you can, including the parts involved in pollination (petals, stamen, stigma, ovary).
Scientific diagram rules:
- Draw what you see, not what you think it should look like
- Use clear outlines (no shading or colouring)
- Label lines should be straight and not cross each other – use the flower anatomy diagram as a guide
- Include a title (e.g. “Flower A”) and write the date
- Add notes about where you found the flower (habitat)
Reflection:
- Did all three flowers have the same parts?
- What does that tell us about diversity in plants?
Can you spot pollinators at work?
- Find an outside area where you can see several flowers.
- Sit quietly and watch for 10 minutes.
- Each time you see a pollinator visit a flower, make a tally using natural counters (sticks, rocks, or leaves).
- At the end, count how many visits you recorded.
Discuss as a class:
- Do you think you would see the same number of visits if you tried this at a different time of day, or in another season?
- What features in the environment might affect pollinator movement (e.g. weather, temperature, types of flowers, time of year)?
- How do both the plants and the pollinators benefit from these visits?
Images 1, 4, 6, 8-10: Centennial Parklands
Image 2: Bee covered in pollen powder. Source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bees_Collecting_Pollen_cropped.jpg
Image 3: Microscopic pollen grains. Source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Misc_pollen_colorized.jpg
Image 5: Grevillea flower. Credit: Louise Murray, Greater Sydney Parklands Education and Community Programs Team
Image 7: UV colouring in a dandelion. Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC 4.0 attribution)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dandelion-SAD-2022.jpg
