Wildlife
Flowering is definitely the most successful plant reproductive strategy and has opened up nearly every habitat on Earth for colonisation. Usually brought on by a change in temperature or daylight, flowering is the reproductive stage of a plant's life cycle. Flowers are designed to encourage the transfer of male pollen to female ovule, and the subsequent production of seed-bearing fruit. A remarkable variety of methods is used to attract insects, birds and even bats: from nutritious nectar to bright colours and scents - not all of which are pleasant. Less showy flowers are serviced by the wind.
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Pussy willow
Springtime catkins attract early springtime pollinators.
Springtime catkins attract early springtime pollinators.
Catkins and flowers
Pollen grains fertilise the female parts of a plant to produce a seed.
Pollen grains fertilise the female parts of a plant to produce a seed.
Bees and balsam
Himalayan balsam uses small economically-produced flowers to attracts bees.
Himalayan balsam uses small economically-produced flowers to attracts bees.
Drink through a straw
Hummingbird hawk moth are perfect matches for honeysuckle.
Hummingbird hawk moth are perfect matches for honeysuckle.
Pollinating prisoners
The dead horse arum mimics a rotting corpse to get itself pollinated.
The dead horse arum mimics a rotting corpse to get itself pollinated.
Arctic poppy 
Bamboo 
Bee orchids 
Beeches and oaks 
Blackberry 
Common beech 
Common bluebell 
Cottongrass 
Daffodil 
Dandelions 
Desert rose 
Dragon's blood tree 
English elm 
English oak 
Flytraps, sundews and pitchers 
Grasses and sedges 
Hawthorn 
Horse chestnut 
Lilies 
Mistletoes (loranthid) 
Modern conifers 
Nettles, elms and hemp 
Oaks 
Orchids 
Passion flowers 
Rose family 
Saguaros 
Snake's head fritillary 
Snowdon lily 
Snowdrop 
Soapberry, maple and citrus 
St John's wort 
Stinging nettle 
Sycamore 
Titan arum 
Tropical pitcher plants 
Tulips 
Venus flytrap 
Violets and pansies 
Violets and passion flowers 
Wild garlic A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also called angiosperms). The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs. Flowers may facilitate outcrossing (fusion of sperm and eggs from different individuals in a population) or allow selfing (fusion of sperm and egg from the same flower). Some flowers produce diaspores without fertilization (parthenocarpy). Flowers contain sporangia and are the site where gametophytes develop. Flowers give rise to fruit and seeds. Many flowers have evolved to be attractive to animals, so as to cause them to be vectors for the transfer of pollen.
In addition to facilitating the reproduction of flowering plants, flowers have long been admired and used by humans to beautify their environment, and also as objects of romance, ritual, religion, medicine and as a source of food.
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Other Reproductive strategy behaviours
Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.
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African Wildlife
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David Attenborough's Madagascar
Like nowhere else on Earth, the mystery and magic of Madagascar leaves a vivid impression on all those who visit, and none more so than David Attenborough.
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