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Why do flowers look and smell so good?

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FAST FACTS

Flowering

plants

01: Flowering plants occur in almost every land habitat on Earth.

02: Sea grasses are the only flowering plants

in the sea.

Plants use bright flowers and strong scents to attract insects, bats, and birds, which feed on nectar inside the flower. The animals enable flowering plants to reproduce by carrying their pollen —which brushes on to them as they feed—from flower to flower.

03: There are two main groups of flowering plants: monocots and dicots.

04: Monocots have leaves with parallel veins, and flower parts arranged in threes.

05: Dicots have net-veined leaves, and flower parts in fours or fives.

06: Some flowers open during the day and close when it is dark.

07: Flowering plants provide food for our livestock and also for us.

08: Flowering plants produce vegetables and fruit, as well as grains, nuts, oils, sugars, and spices.

How to: attract a hummingbird

Makeyour visitor reach deep for the nectar. That way, its body will be dusted with a lot of pollen.

n ■ Choose your flower shape carefully. A long tubę is a good match for a hummingbird’s beak.

w m Don t bother too much about scent. Hummingbirds have a weak sense of smell, so they rely on sight.

Use bold, bright colors to draw attention to yourself. Hummingbirds are especially attracted to the color red.

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Some families of flowering plants

Water lilies

These freshwater plants have their roots in the soil, while their leaves and flowers float on the surface.

Grasses

Rice, wheat, corn, and bamboo are all types of grasses. They have smali flowers without petals.

Orchids

There are 25,000 species of orchid, making it the largest plant family. Many have delicate clusters of flowers.

Paims

Tropical flowering plants, paims have evergreen leaves and a straight stem with no branches.

Lilies

This family of plants with strongly scented flowers includes daffodils, tulips, onions, and garlic.

Laurels

The laurel family includes evergreen shrubs and trees, such as avocados and cinnamon.

(c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved.