Pollination

      Flower markings are like the landing lights on an airport runway. They guide the bee into the flower's pollen grains.

             Bees can help flowers make seeds. Bees usually look for pollen and sweet juice. Every flower has pollen, although some flowers don't have sweet juice. The bee's first job is to move pollen from the anther of one flower to the female stigma of another flower. An anther is the male part of a flower that has pollen grains on it. A stigma is the female part of a flower that receives the pollen. In other words, when a bee gets pollen from a flower, the pollen sticks to the bee.
The bee goes to another flower and the pollen falls onto the stigma. Most flowers use this pollen to make seeds. Other flowers use their own pollen to make seeds.
Each tiny pollen grain grows into a long tube. These are called pollen tubes. They grow until they come to the ovary. The ovary is the section of a flower where the pollen tubes meet. Now a male gamete from the pollen tube joins the egg from the ovary and a seed is born.