Why Do Flowering Plants Produce Fruit?

Reproduction

• Bees carry pollen from one flower to another, helping fertilization.Flower and bee image by Sean Gill from Fotolia.com
  
  Flowers produce eggs and pollen, the reproductive cells of plants. A pollinator, such as a bee, carries pollen from one flower to another. If the pollen is able to travel down to the flower's ovary, and merge with an ovule or egg, it creates a fertilized ovule, or a seed.
  
  

Fruit

• Rose hips contain rose seeds and are the rose's fruit.rose-hips image by Maxim Lysenko from Fotolia.com
  
  A plant's ovary, which holds the ovules, swells and becomes the fruit when its ovules are fertilized. Fruits are produced in a variety of shapes, sizes and textures.
  
  

Purpose I

• Fruits all have the same purpose--to protect the seeds inside and aid in spreading them. Hard fruits and acids or other toxins in fruit tissues make it difficult for wind and animals to destroy the seeds.
  
  

Purpose II

• Fruits are produced in a variety of shapes and sizes.Seeds image by travesty from Fotolia.com
  
  Seeds spread in various ways. Brightly colored fruits attract birds and animals that are searching for food. According to the Marietta College Biology Department, the seeds will pass through their stomachs intact and then distributed through their droppings. Other fruits have hooks, spines and bristles that spread seeds by clinging to fur and clothing. Seed pods, which are also fruits, dry out and rip open, flinging their seeds.
  
  

Fun Fact

• The fruits we eat always develop from a flower.fruits image by cherie from Fotolia.com
  
  According to the Ohio State Cooperative Extension, "Botanically, a fruit always develops from a flower and is composed of at least one ripened ovary."