Fruit Development

This site is intended for children in grades 1-4.

FRUIT DEVELOPMENT The story about how a flower develops the kind of fruit you like to eat!!

A fruit is a structure that develops as the ovary of a flower that nourishes and protects developing seeds. Every angiosperm, which is a flowering plant, produces some type of fruit during the processes of reproduction and seed development, although you may not want to be eating all of those fruits! Some of them can look pretty weird, and probably taste bad too! Here we will take a take a look at some flowers and how they develop the seeds and fruit that you recognize.

FLOWER STRUCTURE

POLLINATION

FERTILIZATION

SEEDS & FRUIT

FLOWER STRUCTURE This is the general structure of a flower. As you probably know, flowers can be many different shapes and colors.

Anther + Filament = a Stamen Stigma + Style + Ovary = the Pistil The receptacle is simply the base of the flower. The sepals are leaf-like structures that protect the developing flower. They fold back as the flower opens and the beautiful, colorful petals emerge. We aren't the only creatures who think petals are pretty and smell nice....many insects, birds, animals and even bats are attracted to the petals and help to transfer pollen from flower to flower.

The pistil of the flower is the female part, and is made up of the stigma, style, and ovary. The stigma is attached to the top of the style and produces a sticky substance that traps pollen. At the base of the pistil is the ovary. The ovary contains ovules, which are small sack-like structures that contain ova, or eggs. When an egg is fertilized, it develops into a seed, and the ovary grows and produces many nutrients that the seed needs. The fruit we eat is actually the ovary of a flower that is fully developed.

The stamen of the flower is the male structure, and it is made up of the anther and filament. The filament supports the anther, which can produce thousands of tiny pollen grains. The pollen fertilizes the egg inside the ovule and makes a seed.

You know that not all flowers look the same, but they also do not possess all the structures illustrated above. Many of them do, but there can be male and female plants and flowers, just like there are male and female people! Here are some flowers that are shaped a little differently...

GO TO: POLLINATION FERTILIZATION SEEDS & FRUIT

James Madison University

This site has been created by Stacy Morgen, 1997.