- The flower is the reproductive part of a flowering plant.
- Some flowering plants include beans, peas, and maize, among others
- The following is an illustration showing parts of a flower.

1. Petals - they attract insects to facilitate pollination
2. Sepals - they protect flowers during the budding stage
3. Stalk - they offer support to the flower
4. Anthers - they produce pollen grains
5. Filament - they hold the anthers
6. Stigma - they receive pollen grains during pollination
7. Syle - holding the stigma and connecting it to the ovary
8. Ovary - this contains the ovules
9. Ovules - they are the female cells that develop into seeds

NOTES
- The male part of a flower is called the stamen/. It consists of anthers and the filament.
- The female part of a flower is called the pistil or carpel. It consists of the stigma, style, ovary and ovules.
- Petals are also called corolla while sepals are also called calyx.

- This is the transfer of pollen grains from anthers to stigma
- Pollination happens through wind or insects,w hich are the agents of pollination.
- There are two types of pollination (cross pollination, self pollination). - Cross polination occurs when pollen grains move from one plant to another.

- On the other hand, self pollination occurs when pollen grains move from the anthers to the stigma of one flower or another flower on the same plant.

- The following table shows the charcateristics of wind and insect pollinated flowers

- Fertilization occurs when pollen grains unite with ovules, which is the union of a male sex cell and a female sex cell.
- This fertilization occurs in the ovary.
- After fertilization has taken place, the ovary grow into a fruit while ovules develop into seeds.

- The testa/seed coat protects the inner parts of a seed.
- Micropyle allows water and air to enter the seed during germination.
- Hilum is a scar formed when a seed is removed from the fruit.
- Cotyledon stores food ina bean seed.
- Endosperm stores food in a maize grain.
- Plumule develops into shoot after germination.
- Radicle develops into a root after germination.

Germination occurs when a seed starts developing into a plant.
- In order for a seed to germinate, it needs water, oxygen and warmth.
- Water dissolves the food in the cotyledon or endosperm.
- Oxygen is needed for respiration, which provides the energy needed for the seed to grow.
- Warmth makes the developing cells active.

Water in Germination
- To show that water is needed for germination, one can use the following experiment.

- There was germination in B and not in A because A doies not have water and B has water.

Oxygen in Germination
- To show that oxygen is needed for germination, one can use the following experiment.

- There was germination in B and not in A, because B does no have oxygen.
- When water has been boiled, oxygen is removed and oil prevents any oxygen from from dissolving into the water.
Warmth in Germination
- To show that warmth is needed for germination, one can use the following experiment.
- Seed are put in two glasses with wet cotton wool
- One of the glasses is then dipped in a bigger container filled with ice.
- Germination occurs in the beaker that has NOT been dipped in ice, and not in the other one in ice.
- This is because the ice crystals lower temperature and remove warmth, making it hard for seeds to germinate.