My Challenge for you today is to dissect a flower.

Watch my video to see how.

What you will need:
A flower
Parts of the flower sheet below
A camera or a piece of paper and pencil

How to do it:
Look around you garden and with permission pick a flower.
Look at the shape of the flower and try to understand why it is shaped that way.
Look at the location of the pollen on the anther, does the shape of the flower force pollinators past the pollen? Does the location of the nectar persuade the pollinators to push past the anther or the stigma?

Find the pollen bearing anther. Do they stick out beyond the stigma on a filament? Are they ripe now? Can you get pollen on your finger?
Find the sticky stigma. Is it sticky on your finger? Can you place some pollen from the anther on to the sticky stigma? If you can you have now made a baby plant!
Follow the style from the sigma down to the flower stalk. Can you find the ovary? A bulge below the flower.
Cut the ovary open and see if you can find the unfertilised ovum which will turn into the seeds. How many ovum does the flower have?
Can you find the next stage after pollination and fertilisation?
Can you find a seed developing behind a flower?
You could collect this seed to complete the life cycle by placing it in soil and get the seed to germinate into a new plants.

Use the parts of the flower worksheet to label your own flower. You could draw the flower or take a photo and label using an app like skitch.

I would love to see your labelled pictures so please tweet #Naturedays @DawnNaturedays or on the Nature Days facebook page.