Page 10 - (DK) Flowers

Complicated flowers Piped aboard

The Dutchman’s-pipe plant has flowers that
look just like a pipe. They attract flies with
If you look at flowers in a garden or in the countryside, their sickly smell. The flies can only escape

you will see that they come in many shapes. Some flowers when stiff hairs inside the flower wither.
are flat and round. Others are shaped like funnels, beaks,
or even umbrellas. These types of flowers are called A living trap Spadix
complicated flowers. Imagine being Flies tumble from the

caught in a trap, spadix, or hood, into a
How many petals? dusted with pollen,
An everlasting pea has five petals. Two and then released. lower chamber, which
contains tiny flowers.
are joined together making the inside That is what happens
of the “beak,” which sticks forward. to tiny flies that visit the
Two more lie on either side, while lords-and-ladies plant. The club-shaped spadix
the fifth makes a curved “hood” gives off a scent that
around the top of the flower. attracts tiny flies.
The hood has
a slippery lining.
The “beak” is made Try and guess how many flowers
up of four petals. a flower head has in this picture,
and then count them.
“Hood”
petal “Beak” petal

Growing together
Many complicated flowers
grow together in clusters,
called flower heads.
Lower
“Beak” chamber
petal

Anthers hold
a yellow dust
called pollen.
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