Pollination and fertilisation

Sexual reproduction is a way of making a new individual by joining two special sex cells, called gametes. In the sexual reproduction of animals and plants, the male and female gametes join to ...

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ARTICLE

Flowering plant life cycles

The flowers and fruit of flowering plants come and go as part of their life cycle. Some flowering plants don’t even have stems and leaves all the time. The fruit and vegetables we eat come from ...

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ARTICLE

Attracting pollinators

Flowering plants need to get pollen from one flower to another, either within a plant for self-pollination or between plants of the same species for cross-pollination to occur. However, pollen ...

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VIDEO

Plant pollination

Dr Mark Goodwin of Plant & Food Research explains how flowering plants use self-pollination or cross-pollination in their reproduction. He uses kiwifruit and avocado as examples to show how ...

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ARTICLE

Flower parts

Most flowers have the same basic parts, even though they come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours. Flowers are there to make sure that pollination and fertilisation take place, so that ...

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ARTICLE

Honey bee heroes

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are the most important pollinators of many cultivated food crops and other flowering plants. These plants would be in trouble without bees, and so would we. Flowers ...

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ACTIVITY

Pass the pollen

In this activity, students take on the role of flower parts and act out the process of insect pollination By the end of this activity, students should be able to: understand that pollination ...

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TEACHER PLD

Pollination resources – planning pathways

Flowers are a common sight in most New Zealand school grounds. They offer a colourful starting point to teach about plant reproduction and adaptation and offer opportunities to extend into ...

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VIDEO

Bird pollination in New Zealand

Dave Kelly of the University of Canterbury explains abiotic pollination by wind and biotic pollination by animals. He shows the characteristics of bird-pollinated flowers and the birds that carry ...

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ACTIVITY

Pollination pairs

In this activity, students match native flowers with their pollinators, basing predictions on the main characteristics of flowers pollinated by wind, insects or birds. By the end of this ...

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ARTICLE

Decline of birds and pollination

Birdlife has been declining in the New Zealand bush for many years, mainly due to introduced predators such as rats and stoats. Professor Dave Kelly and Jenny Ladley of the University of ...

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INTERACTIVE

Planning pathways using pollination resources

This interactive groups Hub resources into key science and technology concepts. The article Pollination resources provides pedagogical advice and links to the New Zealand Curriculum.

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VIDEO

Bees and varroa

Watch varroa mites (white juveniles and brown adults) on honey bees and learn how they spread viruses that kill bee colonies. Dr Mark Goodwin of Plant & Food Research shows hives being ...

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ACTIVITY

Pollination – three-level reading guide

In this activity, students read about pollination using a three-level reading guide and use their ability to locate information to interpret the scientific information. Students apply their ...

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ARTICLE

Mistletoes and mutualism

In some of the beech forests of New Zealand, bright red or yellow mistletoe flowers stand out in the summer. The colour attracts native birds, which drink the nectar and pollinate the flowers at ...

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ARTICLE

Pollination – key terms

Learn about the role of flowers in the life cycles of flowering plants. Discover how flowers ensure the transfer of pollen, and meet some of the unsuspecting animal pollinators. This resource ...

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VIDEO

Working with bees

View Dr Mark Goodwin of Plant & Food Research working with honey bees at an open hive, using smoke to calm them. Hear about some of things that Mark finds amazing and exciting about bees and ...

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ARTICLE

Dr Mark Goodwin

Position: Head of research, Plant & Food Research. Field: Honey bees and pollination. For Dr Mark Goodwin, working with pollination has its challenges. Most crop plants only flower for a few ...

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VIDEO

Recently arrived birds

Dave Kelly of the University of Canterbury explains how some introduced birds can pollinate native flowers, but they don’t very often. His assistant Jenny Ladley helps study bird pollinators in ...

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ARTICLE

Investigating pollination – writer insight

Hub's writer, Nelville Gardner, talks about our pollination resources. One of the scientists featured in the articles on pollination, Dave Kelly of the University of Canterbury, strongly believes ...

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VIDEO

The pollination problem

Many New Zealand birds have declined in numbers, so Dave Kelly and Jenny Ladley of University of Canterbury study the effect this has on native bird-pollinated plants. Dave explains the need to ...

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VIDEO

Mistletoe research

Dave Kelly the of University of Canterbury explains why native mistletoes are declining. He also talks about the research that he and Jenny Ladley carry out in Craigieburn Forest Park in the ...

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VIDEO

Rhabdothamnus research

The Rhabdothamnus plant relies on bellbirds and stitchbirds for pollination. Dave Kelly of the University of Canterbury explains that, where these birds are absent, the plants are not surviving ...

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VIDEO

Mistletoe discoveries

Jenny Ladley of the University of Canterbury explains how she discovered that the flowers of the native Peraxilla mistletoe only open when tweaked by certain native birds. This flowering ...

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