Pollinating

María José Leaño

Colombia

What is pollination?

To pollinate is to fertilize, it is the way plants make love and reproduce. A plant has neither hands nor feet and it is very difficult for it to find a mate and even more difficult for it to have sex, so it uses pollinators to get its male cells to the ovules of another plant and fertilize it, and have sex at a distance.

Pollinators are essential to ensure genetic diversity and the viability of future generations by carrying pollen from one plant to another. Flowers attract animals with their shape, smell, color and nectar to carry pollen, which attaches to inaccessible parts of their bodies and is encapsulated to prevent dehydration during transport. When pollen reaches the pistil of a flower, it is chemically activated, triggering the growth of a tube that reaches the eggs at the bottom of the flower. The resulting fertilization forms a seed that contains the embryo of the plant, and in some cases, also a fruit.

From the seeds the plants will be born and will also serve as food for other living beings, including us, hence the great importance of pollination.