EDMOND HARRY LUCY EDMOND I don't understand how they choose one over the other. LUCY Well, sometimes I feel like playing ball, sometimes I feel like swimming... HARRY So tell me kids, what are you looking at today? EDMOND We were wondering how a bee chooses one flower over another. LUCY I think it depends on their mood. One day, they want a daisy, the next day a bluebell It's that simple. HARRY Hm-mm. Not quite. More often than not, it's the flowers, and not the bees, who decide when it's the right time to forage. LUCY Are you sure? Bees are the ones who need flowers to make honey. HARRY Yes, that's true. But some flowers also need bees to help them with the pollination process. LUCY What? EDMOND What? HARRY It's thanks to the pollination process that the flowers can reproduce themselves. EDMOND "Pollination" Found it! HARRY Inside a flower, there are two essential parts for their reproduction: the stamen, here in yellow, and the pistil, in brown. The stamen has pollen grains on it. Pollination occurs when pollen from one flower is transported to the pistil of another. EDMOND Oh, I get it! The bees and the wind do the transporting. HARRY Exactly! When the bees forage the flowers to gather the nectar, the pollen grains cling to their hairs. LUCY What exactly is nectar? HARRY It's a sweet substance found in the center of flowers that bees like to eat. The pollen on the bees gets transferred to the flower's pistil, and thanks to this, little by little, the pistil will start to change and produce flower seeds. EDMOND And those seeds will grow into new flowers. HARRY Yes, that's right! EDMOND Wow! They sure have a lot of work to do with transporting all that pollen! HARRY Thankfully, there are other insects to help them with pollination. All of these insects put together are called pollinators. LUCY Yeah, look at all of them: flies, wasps, butterflies, beetles and ewww... there are even spiders! EDMOND In fact, most of these small insects are essential to the reproduction of flowers. HARRY Yes, each pollinator has an essential role to play in the balance of nature. EDMOND You said before the flowers attracted them, but how do they do that? LUCY Oh well, that's easy, they just shout: 'nectar!' 'nectar!' 'who wants some nectar!' 'come get your nectar!' EDMOND HARRY Attracting them with nectar is one way, but they also have other tricks they use to attract pollinators, like their bright colors, or their shapes, or their smells! LUCY That's the opposite of Edmond! His smell makes all the bugs run away. EDMOND And you make all the flowers wilt when they smell you! LUCY Mm-mm. HARRY So tell me, kids, did you understand everything today? LUCY Yes! In order to reproduce themselves, some flowers need help from insects, like bees... EDMOND ...who pick up pollen grains on their bodies and carry them from flower to flower. LUCY Inside the flower, the pistil changes and produces seeds. But what's really incredible is that the flowers know how to attract insects. They have a bunch of tricks like using their shapes, their colors or their smells to attract the pollinators. HARRY Very well done, kids. Bravo!