Plants

in Love
Volume 20, Number 7 September 2021

Liz Huyck Editor

Tracy Vonder Brink Contributing Editor
Emily Cambias Assistant Editor
Anna Lender Art Director
Erin Hookana Designer
David Stockdale Permissions Specialist

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Suggested for ages 7 to 10

10.
 ty ?
as

t
i rt
Is d
page 18
Features Wh
at’
s
t
6 Why Are There Flowers?

he
bu
by Meg Moss

z?z
12 Pollen Partners
by Bea B. Beebe
18 Garden Friends
by Faith Hickman-Brynie
20 Is My Tree a Boy or Girl?
21 How to Grow an Apple page 17
by Charles Micucci
26 The Case of the
Missing Mammoth
by Silvia Sanides ing a str
a w?
br
you
Would you eat t D id
his?

page 27
page 14

Snake Rodeo
For animals without arms or legs,
snakes are surprisingly swift movers.
Slithering is just one option. Some
snakes also swim. Others leap between
trees. And scientists have discovered
that the brown tree snake can climb
trees by making its body into a lasso.
This here tree’s up. Very slowly, it scoots up
not big enough for the tree.
the both of us.
Brown tree snakes
ack
climb trees to sn
on bird eggs.
How Many Dinos?
There are almost 8 billion humans
on Earth today. But millions of
years ago, there were no people
and lots of dinosaurs. How many
dinos, exactly? For one species,
the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex,
scientists think that number may
have been about 20,000 living on
Earth at any one time.
Scientists made their guess
using a mathematical formula. The
formula is based on an observation
2 ask
by
Elizabeth
Preston
If a tree has bumpy bark, a snake
can simply crawl up. Thin trees,
they coil around. But how to get
up a wide, smooth-barked tree? The
brown tree snake solves this problem
by looping its tail all the way around
the tree until it hooks back onto
itself. It points its head and
the rest of its body straight
This method is tiring
forr the snakes. But
cllimbing different
kinds of trees lets
themm reach nests at the
top full
f of tasty bird eggs.
of animals living today. It says that
the bigger an animal is, the fewer
there are. There are lots of tiny mice
and lizards in the world, for example,
but not many lions or whales.
T. rex was big. An average adult
T. rex weighed about 5 tons (5,200
kg). Statisticians plugged that number
into the formula that modern animals
follow, along with other information
about the dinosaurs’ lifestyle (like how
long they lived), to find their answer.
Table Trash
Sometimes, food gets thrown away.
At home, it might be sandwich crusts
or squishy grapes. Restaurants and
grocery stores toss food that goes
bad. And all that trash adds up. How
much? Scientists around the world
have been trying to measure food
waste. That will help them find ways
to reduce it. Researchers from the
United Nations estimates that 17% of
food from homes, restaurants, and
stores goes in the trash. That’s about
931 million metric tons of food waste
every year. That’s a lot!
Some of this trash is bones, shells,
and peels that people can’t eat. But if
we could cut down on usable food You call it waste,
that goes in the garbage, it would I call it lunch.
be good for the planet. When
food goes in the trash, it means
water and land that helped
grow the food were wasted, too.
Being more careful with food
nough.
will help everyone get enough.

Strangely shaped You can

still eaat
strawberries taste Taste us!
just as good as Funny before Just as
looking but beauty! good!
pretty ones. Instead We’re
of throwing out deliciouss! yummy too
!
all the less-than-
perfect produce,
some grocery storess
give a discount on
“ugly” fruits and
vegetables so they
aren’t wasted.

Why did the

T. rex cross
the road? To eat the
statistician!

I have found
my people!

ask 3
 I’m turning my yard
into a wildlife habitat!

Wow, Nestor,
you’ve really let
your yard go.

I’m letting the native So, if you grow the

And it attracts lots of
flowers and plants grow. right plants, birds
birds and butterflies.
and butterflies just
appear?
Cool! You don’t have
to mow any more!

What if I want to
attract something
bigger? If I plant
banana trees, will I
get monkeys?

4 ask
 Ooo. I should plant eucalyptus I’d plant bamboo so I could hang
trees, so I can cuddle with koalas. out with some pandas.

Um...I think plants can only But if you want bigger

attract animals that are on creatures, there is one kind my
the same continent. meadow attracts . . .

Bird
watchers!

ask 5
 Why Are There by Meg Moss

Flowers? art by Patricia Wynne

Flowers are lovely.

They fill gardens, To make
fields, forests, and me happy!

even deserts with

beauty and sweet scent.
But why do plants
make them? All
those fantastic
blooms are not
just for show. They
have an important
job to do.

6 ask
DinDin for Dinos
In early dinosaur times, around Pine-o-saur?
This odd-looking tree is a
200 million years ago, Earth was Wollemi pine, an ancient
green, green, and green. There species that has survived
were plenty of plants, but not a since the time of the
single flower. dinosaurs. The trees that
the dinosaurs munched
Plant-eating dinosaurs
probably looked like this.
munched their way through Scientists thought it was
forests of ferns and trees similar long extinct, until a few
to pines. There was no grass or were discovered growing
fruit—just tough branches, leaves, in Australia. The trees
have been quietly living
and pine cones.
and reproducing there for
Dinosaurs munched and at least 91 million years.
crunched on their chewy green
world for millions of years. Plant-
eaters had big teeth to shred the filled with starter food helped plants
greenery and swallow it whole. The spread inland, to drier places. Soon
tough plants were not easy to digest. plants covered the land. But there
Sauropod dinosaurs
Some dinosaurs swallowed stones were no flowers yet. needed huge guts to
to help grind their food inside. digest tough trees.
Scientists think that giants like the
sauropods got huge because they
needed big stomachs to digest all
those tough trees.
Long before dinosaurs, the first
land plants spread by releasing tiny Mmmm...
spores, too small to see. These spores chewy.
only sprouted in water. That limited
where plants could spread.
Over time, some plants evolved a
hard case around their spores—the
first seeds. The shell protected the
Needs ketchup.
spore until it found a good place to
sprout. The parent plant could even
pack some food inside for the new
plant to use. Hard-shelled seeds

ask 7
 Before Flowers
Early land plants resembled pines and ferns.
They did not have flowers. Many kept
their seeds in cones. In the spring, male
cones shed pollen into the wind. If some
landed on a female cone, a seed formed.
When the seeds were ready,
scale the cone opened and the
seeds fell or blew away.
Plants that make seeds
this way are called
seed gymnosperms, or
“naked seed.”
Petal Power
Then, about 140 million years ago,
things began to change. The very first
flowering plants appeared.
The first flowers didn’t look like
much. They didn’t even have petals.
After flowers started
blooming on the Earth, plant-
eating dinosaurs got smaller.
This hadrosaurus weighed only
about 5 tons. That’s still big,
but much less than the 30
tons of an apatosaurus.
8 ask
Montsechia vidalii
This 130 million year old fossil may be one of
the very first flowers. It has no petals, but it
does have closed chambers to hold seeds.
But they did have an amazing new
trick—a closed chamber for making
seeds. The new plants were angio-
sperms, meaning “enclosed seeds.”
To make seeds, a plant needs to
capture some pollen from another
plant of its own kind. Early plants
loosed clouds of pollen to blow
around on the wind. With luck, some
would land on just the right part of
another plant, and a seed would grow.
But the new flowering plants kept
their seed-making parts inside a seed
chamber. So how could pollen get in?
stigma
aanther
pistil
Who knew all
that was going stamen
on in a little
flower? sepal
carpel ovules
(future
seeds)
 pollen. Then the unsuspecting visitorr
carried the pollen straight to another
flower. This was much more efficient
than wind. Flowering plants could
make more seeds with a lot less
Look how I’ve cleverly
got this bird to stick its
pollen. So they spread quickly.
head into my flower so I Flowers worked so well thaat
can rub pollen on him.
now, flowering plants dominatte
When this tui bird reaches the world. Of the more than
into a flower for nectar, it gets a 320,000 plant species on Earth,
Earth 250,000
250 000
dusting of orange pollen on its head.
have flowers.
With a little help from bugs! The
Cretaceous forests were crawling with KABLOOM!
flies, wasps, beetles, lizards, and other Next, plants developed
creatures. They moved from plant to colorful petals and nicee
plant, eating sap and leaves. The new scents to lure pollen
flowering plants began to surround carriers. When we see
their seed chambers with sugary flowers, we think “prettty!” But a
nectar. This lured passing insects and bee or butterfly thinks, “snack time!” C
ome a
small animals. Many petals have sttriped patterns get nd
it!
When an animal stopped to sip that act like airport runnway lights, to The
nectar, the flower dusted them with guide flying insects to the tasty nectar signs
are
working!

Flower Power pollen grains

All flowers help plants to repro-
duce. They all have enclosed seeds.
And they all have tiny parts with pollen
tube
weird names.
Dusty pollen covers the flower’s seed
ovule
anthers, ready for a bee to carry it
away. The long stalk at the center
of the bloom (the style) is topped
off by the sticky stigma, which
collects pollen from visiting insects. 1. Visiting insects 2. If the pollen iss 3. Then a seed forms.
forms
brush pollen from the same kind
Nestled at the base of the style grains onto a of plant, it sends Pollen from other kinds of
is the carpel, which contains the flower’s pollen- a tube down to an plants does not form tubes
plant’s ovules. Once the ovules are collecting stalk ovule (egg cell). or make seeds.
fertilized by pollen, they develop (or stalks).
into seeds. Style, stigma, and carpel
together form the pistil.

ask 9
 The honey possum
lives on nectar
from eucalyptus
flowers. In
return, it
spreads pollen sure t get doused
from plant
to plant. Each
with pollen. ny, spiky grains
needs the other stick to the visitor and get carried to
to survive.
the next flower they visit. Mission
accomplished for the flower!
Over time, flowers evolved to
inside. Petals also serve as insect lure certain kinds of insects or birds.
landing pads, giving pollinators a Yellow and blue flowers with strong
I hope Plush place to perch. scents are especially attractive to
likes my special
flower. But the treats aren’t free. In return bees, for example. White flowers that
for a nectar snack, flowers make bloom at night draw moths. If a plant
can get a few favorite pollinators,
this helps more of their pollen get
Moving Seeds to flowers of the same
Plants use flowers to get pollinators to move their pollen around. species.
But what about seeds? Plants get a little help with that, too.
All New! Fruit!
Once a flower has been
pollinated, seeds grow
inside.
But now the flower
has another problem.
How to spread their
Wind carries fluffy seeds. Tufts seeds around, and
on light milkweed seeds help blanket the country-
them blow far. Birds and animals eat berries and poop
out the seeds somewhere else.
side with new blooms?
Squirrels bury nuts
The answer: fruits.
but don’t dig them When the seeds
all up again. Burrs are seeds
that catch on
inside a flower are
fur. Animals
carry them fa
before they’r
brushed off.
I never lose
any of mine!

10 ask
 WHICH OF THESE
W
IS A FRUIT?

I thought
tomatoes
were
contain the pollinated seed of the plant. vegetables.
Answer: Trick question! They are all fruits, because they all Technically, if
it has seeds,
it’s a fruit!

ripe, the pod holding them drops off. Once flowering plants appeared,
That’s the fruit. All flowering plants plant-eating dinosaurs grew smaller.
make some kind of fruit—though They no longer needed huge
only some are the kind we like to eat. stomachs to digest tough cones and
Some plants evolved bigger and woody stems.
That’s nuts.
bigger seed holders. These became Warm-blooded mammals, who
fleshy fruits. Birds and animals need a lot of energy to survive,
gobble the fruit and spit out the thrived on a diet of flowering plants.
seeds, or poop them out far away. Eventually, humans came to depend
Other fruits are packed with fat and on flowering plants too. Most of our
Also a fruit.
protein—we call those nuts. With food crops, including wheat, corn,
the help of animals, fruiting plants rice, nuts, fruits, and vegetables, are
spread all over. floweriing plants.
l Without
Wi h
floweriing plants,
Flowers Rule the World humanns could not
Plants turn energy from the sun into survi So, next
food energy that all animals use. time enjoy
Without plants, no animals could a snackk, thank
survive. Even meat eaters depend on a flower
plants, since they eat plant-eating
animals. (If you like hamburgers,
remember that they come from Thanks,
plant-eating cows.) flowers!
Unlike the tough, woody
gymnosperms, flowering plants give The flower
has attained
lots of high-energy nectar and fruit. perfection!

ask 11
 lle n Pa rt ne r
Po s

Wind
I
t’s summer, and fields of flowers are
bursting with bright yellow pollen.
Bees buzz from blossom to blossom,
AH-CHOO!
hunting nectar. With each visit, they also
carry pollen—the plant’s message of love.
Plants trade pollen to make seeds.
Trees that rely
on the wind
Blowing in the Wind to spread their
The first pollen-carrier wasn’t a bee—it pollen make huge
amounts of it.
was the wind. Many trees and grasses still
use the wind to spread pollen. These plants
make a LOT of it. With luck, some pollen
grains will blow onto another plant of the
same kind.
I wonder
d
The flowers of wind-pollinated plants where I’ll
Wind-spread
land?
are small and colorless. They don’t need to pollen grains
are tiny and
attract bees, so they don’t have any nectar Wind-pollinated smooth, so they
or perfume. Their pollen grains are small plants have float on air.
flowers with no These are from
and smooth, so they can blow far. Some color or scent. a pine tree.
even have little wings.

12 ask
 I have a I HAD
purse full of a purse
full of
Flower
pollen. cupcakes. Pals

aat yellow
w patch
p
on the bee’
bee s leg
is a bigg clump of
pollen. Bees collect
poll
pollen to eat.
A Little Help Most plants are visited by at least a few different
But most plants get help from pollinators. Sweet potato plants are pollinated by
bumblebees, beetles, and flies.
animals to move their pollen. They
grow flowers filled with sweet nectar
to lure insects and birds. When one
nuzzles a flower for a treat, it also
picks up pollen. Then it carries the
pollen right to another flower.
Animals and insects that carry
pollen from plant to plant are called
pollinators. Many different insects
and animals do this. Not just bees!

This
stuff gets Some pollinators, like honeybees, visit
As a bee
everywhere! crawls
a wide range of plants.
around a
flower, its
furry body
gets covered
with pollen
grains.

Plants that are pollinated by insects and

animals have spiky pollen grains, to stick to
hairs. This pollen is from a daisy.
Other pollinators are more choosy. Hummingbirds like
hanging flowers with deep blossoms. These flowers
are too deep for bees, so hummingbirds have the
nectar all to themselves.
ask 13
 Pollen Party There are many lt es

e
different kinds of bees,

Be
e s and they are all champion
Be pollinators. Bees can’t see the color
red, so flowers pollinated by bees are
often yellow, blue, and purple. Some
What do even have ultraviolet markings that
we see?
A yellow
point to the nectar. These markings
flower. are invisible to human eyes, but bees
can see them.
What does a
bee see? The I can help
flower has a hidden too!
pattern in ultraviolet
light. We can’t see
ultraviolet, but bees
can. The marks
g e s
point the bee to the
id
flower’s nectar.

i rds M
B
Cacao flowers

Hummingbirds have
long, thin beaks to si
Hurry up with
nectar from trumpe that cocoa!
shaped flowers. As the
sip, their feathers get
dusted with pollen.
Hummingbirds are
drawn to red and
orange flowers.

F l i e s
r f lies d
te
hi

t Butterflies
Syrp
Bu

like many small flowers

bunched together. They stick
their long, hollow tongues into
each bloom to sip nectar. Monarch
butterflies feed on all kinds of flowers,
but they only lay their eggs
on milkweed plants. When the
eggs hatch, the caterpillars eat
I grew it the milkweed leaves to make
just for themselves too bitter for
you!
birds to nibble.
14 ask
 In the Night Garden

o t h s Night-
Beetles
are common
M blooming flowers
often have big white
visitors to garden flowers with a strong
flowers—and also scent. They attract
help pollinate the g y g insects
night-flying
plants
ts. like mot .

So you
agree,
bedtime
should
be after
midnight?

is rainforest oorchid keeps

Chocolate is
made from the seeds
of the cacao tree. The
big seed pods grow from
tiny flowers, pollinated b
midges smaller an a a
s uito.
p
its nectar
n at the bottom
of a foot-long tubbe! W t
possibly drink it? At
ni , a special moth comes
to visit—a moth withh a
roll-up tongue a foott long.
The moth uses its toongue
like a straw to reachh the
hidden nectar. The m moth
and orchid have evolved
together to be perfecct
pollen partners.

Have you ever Desert

seen what look like tiny agave and cactus
bees hovering over a flower? ts are visited
Some are not bees! They are
syrphid flies, also called hoverflies.
s ar-loving In the day,
t

ight. the agave

Ba

These small flies pollinate flowers as attracts

they hunt for nectar. You can tell a hummingbirds
fly by its eyes and wings. Fly eyes
are much bigger, and when resting
they hold their wings out to
the side instead of flat along Long-nosed
their backs. bats love agave.

ask 15
 e r bee
Meet the Bees tt
Everyone knows honeybees—striped, live in

Leafc
hives, make honey. But honeybees are not the
only bees! Honeybees were brought to America
by Europeans in the 1600s. But America also has
over 4,000 species of native bees. Most native
bees don’t live in big hives. They make small Leafcutter
nests or burrows in the ground or in trees. They bees chew
also do a lot of pollinating. round bits of leaf
Okay bees, now
to plug up their
bee
it’s your turn.
nest holes.
on h i d bee
r c
s
B l u e ma

O
Not all bees
Roses are red, wear stripes. The
Violets are blue. blue orchard bee is a
You lucky bees,s,
They’re all for yyou!
dark, shiny blue. They In Ceentral
pollinate many fruit trees. America, tiny
Mason bees lay eggs in l i bbees pollinate
euglossine
burrows plugged with orchids. Male bees collect
clay.
b e e orchid perfumes to
b e e n a attrract female
te r o bees.
n
ip
Me l
e
Carp

Vanillla comes
L
Large, from thee seed pods of a
black Central Amer an orchid.
carpeenter bees In the wild, these wers are
chew out burrows pollinated by stingless lip
in tree trunks and fence posts. bees. When vanilla orchids a
Like many native bees, they grown in places that don’t have
vibrate their bodies to make these bees, farmers have to
pollen jump. This is called pollinate each flower by
“buzz pollination.” hand.

16 ask
 m b lebee l i bee
B
u k a

Al
Bumblebees are
big and furry. They
nest in the ground, in A
Alkali
old mouse holes, or under beees live
flower pots. Tomato plants in desert
love bumblebees. Tomato flowers salt flaats in the
Rooms for
need a bee that will buzz inside everyone! w
western U.S. They dig
to shake pollen loose. And bburrows in the ground
Hey gals,
honeybees don’t know the close together. These
this way!
buzz pollination trick. hardy bees pollinate
alfalfa crops.

Bee Friendly
You can help native bees by making Leave the leaves. Bumblebees and other
a bee-friendly area in your yard or ground-nesting bees hibernate under leaf
community garden. litter. They also like patches of bare
ground or gravel.
Plant some native wildflowers. The
best flowers will depend on where you
live. (Check with your local botanic
.org.)
garden, or find a list at xerces.org.)

Some bees lay eggs

in hollow plant stalks.
This one is cut open
to show the inside.
Each chamber holds a
bee larva and a lump
of bee baby food
called bee bread.
Don’t use weed-killers or pesticides
((insect-killing spray). These poisons also Build a bee box. Some native bees lay
kill native pollinators. eggs in hollow stalks. A bundle of cut
reeds or bamboo in a box can give them a
Learn more about helping native bees at
place to nest. Look for instructions online
www.xerces.org/pollinator-conservation if you’d like to build your own.

ask 17
 Garden Friends
A garden is home to much more than vegetables and flowers.
Gardens provide habitats for many kinds of animals, some of
whom are the gardener’s best friends. In gardens, Restrain yourself,
Whatson. Those are
animals find plenty of food, water, protection from MY garden friends.

predators, and nesting sites. In exchange, they enrich

the soil, pollinate flowers, and gobble up insect pests.

by Faith Hickman-Brynie, art by Karen Dugan Earthworms burrow

into hard soil, creating
channels where water can
drain and air can get to
the roots of plants. The
wastes that earthworms
deposit in soil provide
nutrients for the plants.

Maybe a toad
would like to live
in my old shell?

Ladybugs, also called ladybird Lucky is the gardener who

beetles, eat aphids—small, soft provides a home for a toad! In a
insects that look like tiny single growing season, a hungry
grains of rice. Aphids suck toad can eat more than 10,000
the juices from garden plants garden pests. Toads hide in cool,
and kill them. dark places during the day. They
come out at night to hunt.

18 ask
 This hummingbird
is making a meal of
nectar from a flower.
It will transfer pollen
as it dines on another
flower of the same
Many garden plants need species later.
butterflies to pollinate Maybe I should
them. Butterflies are wear red.
active during the day.
They have good color
vision but a poor sense
of smell, so they are
attracted to bright (often
n
red), odorless flowers.

Many bees visit flowers to

collect pollen and nectar to
eat. Bees return the favor
by taking pollen from one
plant to another. If they
didn’t, many plants couldn’t
A slime trail may mean
form seeds.
slugs are eating garden
plants at night. Slug-damaged
leaves can be infected by
fungi or bacteria. Garter
snakes eat slugs. Gardeners
welcome these shy snakes,
who don’t harm humans.

Got some
snakes for your
slug problem.

Um...thanks?

The praying mantis captures and eats

many kinds of insects that bother a
garden. The mantis looks like a leaf or
a stem. While waiting for its dinner to Who gains more—the
come along, it folds up into a “praying” gardener or the gardener’s
position, with its legs under its head. animal helpers? You decide.
Then, zap! It leaps and captures its prey.

ask 19
 Is My Tree a Boy or Girl ? My tree is
a tree!
Both
Most flowering plants, and many trees,
have flowers that include both male
Perfect flowers
and female parts (pollen and ovules).
both give and
This is what botanists call a perfect get pollen. Some
flower. It is efficient—every blossom can even pollinate
can both release and collect pollen. themselves But
most prefer to
swap pollen with
Trees with perfect flowers: apple, pear, plum, another flower.
magnolia, dogwood—and many more.

Separate Flowers
Some trees have different male
and female flowers on the same
tree. The female flowers collect
pollen, and the male flowers spread
pollen. Plants with separate male Male
and female flowers are called mulberry
monoecious. Blue spruce grows female
Bl f l cones
on the top, and male cones below. Fun fact: Some
Monoecious trees: Pine and fir, birch, beech, This prevents the tree’s pollen trees, like
chestnut, hazel, walnut, sweetgum, maple from falling on its own cones. mulberries, can be
either all male, or
Poplar, have
all female, or a mix.
Separate Trees you met
Poplar?
A few species have separate male
and female trees. The male trees
make only flowers that release
pollen. The female trees make
only flowers that collect pollen
and grow seeds. Trees with poplar
l male
l
flower
separate males and females are
called dioecious.
Dioecious trees: Aspen, ash, poplar, Osage poplar female O l female
Only f l ash
h trees
t
orange, holly, Kentucky coffeetree flower make winged seeds.

Clones
Some trees spread in a more
unusual way—they clone
themselves. These trees do make
seeds. But new trees can also
shoot up from the parent’s roots.
20 ask
These are called clonal trees.
One stand of quaking aspen in
Colorado, called Pando, may have
been cloning itself for thousands
of years.
 How to
Grow an Apple
text and art by Charles Micucci

The apple is one of the most popular fruit trees

in the world. The first apple trees grew in
Kazakhstan, in central Asia. Travelers spread
the seeds, and now apple trees grow on
I grew this
just for you.
every continent except Antarctica.
Every year, apple orchards in the U.S.
You and
the tree.
produce around 5 million tons of apples.
An apple tree may grow to be 40 feet
(12 m) high and live for over 100 years.
But it all begins with one small flower.

In late summer, after apple

Every apple starts harvest, the next year’s buds
out as a flower. start to form. The buds grow
And every apple a covering of fuzzy hair to
flower starts out protect them from ice and snow
apple buds
as a tiny, cold bud. in winter during the winter months.

Finally, as the days

apple buds grow warm, the buds
In the in spring blossom into pink flowers. Apple
spring, buds need a cold rest during the
leaves sprout winter. That is why apple trees
from the buds. Soon grow better in places where winter
leaves fill the tree. temperatures drop below 45° F (7° C).

ask 21
 Flower Secrets
If you cut an apple flower in half, this is what you would see.

The pistil is the female, pollen- Stamens are the male parts
collecting part of the flower. On of the flower. At the tips are
the top of each long style is a pollen-coated pads called anthers.
sticky pad called the stigma.

When apple pollen lands on an

Nectar, a sweet liquid that
apple flower, pollen and ovule
bees like, hides in the center
merge to make a seed. This is
of the flower.
called pollination. Pollen from
other plants does not make
seeds. It just sits there.

In the base of the flower

are five small chambers. Each
contains two egg cells, or
ovules. They will become seeds
in the core of the apple.

My insides are But can you grow As an apple grows, the sepals,
complicated too. into an apple? stamens, and pistil stay. You can still
see them (a bit dried up) on the
bottom of a ripe apple. The flower’s
ovary grows into the apple core.

To make fruit, apple flowers need pollen from a tree that grows a different kind
of apple. (That’s why orchards grow so many varieties.) They get help from bees.

As bees fly around to many apple The bee lands on the petals As the bee gathers nectar, it
flowers, they get dusted with pollen. and searches for nectar brushes pollen from other flowers
and pollen. on this flower’s stigmas. Success!

22 ask
An Apple Grows
After the apple flower has been pollinated, the petals fall off, and the base
begins to bulge. Through the spring and summer, it swells up until it begins
to look like an apple. Soon the sun will ripen it, and it will be ready to pick.

Once the bloom is done, The base of the flower starts to

the petals fall off. swell. Inside, seeds grow.

Eye of frog and

Toe of newt,
Turn this flower
Into fruit!

The fruit becomes round and When the apple is full size, the sun
starts to look like a small apple. ripens it, and it changes color.

An apple flower usually has

ten ovules. At least four of
them have to be fertilized for
an apple fruit to grow. And
unless all ten are fertilized, it
will be lopsided.

In plants, leaves
produce the energy Time for
needed to grow pies!

fruit. It takes over

50 leaves to grow B
CLU
one apple.

ask 23
 The Oddness of Apples Like all living things,
If you grow ten trees from the apples inherit traits from
seeds in a single big, red apple, their parents. One parent
would you get more big red is the tree whose flower
apples? Nope. Their apples would grows into the apple. The
all be—completely different! Why? other parent is the tree
Apple trees like to mix things up. the pollen came from.
Flower parent Pollen parent

Every seed in an apple

forms from one ovule
and one pollen grain.
Those pollen grains
might come from ten
different trees.
small
big
red yellow
Each ovule and pollen This tree grows small,
sweet yellow, sweet apples, and
tart grain gets a random
half of its parent carries hidden codes for
This tree grows big, red, tart apples. tree’s DNA code. red and sour.
Its DNA also carries hidden (silent) This can include code
codes for “small” and “green.” for traits that are
silent or hidden in Pollen grains
the parent. small
Ovules 1 yellow
1 sour
small
green 2 small
tart small red
3 sweet
2 big red
green sour
3
big tart
red Three seeds from one
tart
apple, three different
Having each seed apple trees!
be different is
good for the Most of the
apples—if their apple varieties
Seed 1: Grows a Seed 3: Grows
seeds fall in a new tree with small, a tree with we eat today
place, chances yellow, tart Seed 2: Grows
big, red, sour were discovered
apples. apples.
are that at least a tree with big, growing wild,
green, sweet
some will thrive. apples. and grafted to
That helps apples
es make more.
survive and
spread.
Granny
Smith Golden
Reed delicious ddelicious York imper al

24 ask
 The Apple-Grower’s Secret
So how DO you get more big, red apples? Instead of growing
new trees from seeds, apple-growers use a trick called grafting.
They join a branch from one tree to the trunk of another
tree. The branch will keep making its own kind of apples.
Until modern times, most
Here are two ways to graft an apple tree. apples were pressed into
cider, not eaten raw. No
1. Bud graft Attach a branch bud from one tree to the one minded that wild,
growing branch of another. seed-grown trees all had
different apples. In fact,
the wild mix made the
cider taste better.

A bud
b d is
i cutt A TT-shaped
h d cutt Th bbudd is
The The bbudd and bbraan
anch
from a tree. is made in the placed inside are wrapped with h
bark of another the T-shaped tape until the cuut
apple tree. cut. heals.

2. Cleft graft Grow a new tree by inserting a branch intoo

a live stump
stum off another
th aapplee ttree
ee that
t at has been cut.

The end of the A cleft is The

Th scion is Wax
W is i pouredd over
branch (called a cut into the inserted into the join to protect A new tree grows from
scion) is cut at live stump. the stump. it from weather the joined branch.
an angle. and bugs.
Grafting is an old trick—
In both types of graft, the ancient Greeks were
the scion controls what grafting apple trees in
type of apples will grow. 400 BCE. So the trickiness
For example, if the of the apple has inspired
scion is from a Granny humans to get tricky, too.
Smith apple tree, then A h
Anything f a tasty apple!
for l !
all the apples will be
Try the Raccoon
Granny Smith apples. Surprise!

Cox’ss orange
Cox orang Rhode Island
pippin ona greening

ask 25
 The CASE of the
MISSING MAMMOTH
by Silvia Sanides
art by David Clark

B
y the side of a country green fruit that look like brains. The
road in South Carolina fruits plop down to the road, where
grows a thorny tree. they lie, uneaten. They taste as bad as
Once, it was part of they look. The flesh is tough, full of
a living fence to seeds, and oozes a bitter white slime.
keep cattle awayy
from the road.
Now in the fall,
the branches fill
with big, wrinkled

26 ask

Tree seeds find many creative ways
to travel. Coconut seeds float to new
beaches. Maple seeds have wings.
The Icky Fruit
This odd tree is an Osage orange, also
known as a hedge apple or horse apple
(though it is not related to oranges or
apples—it’s a cousin of mulberries).
And it posed a puzzle for scientists.
text © 2021 by Silvia Sanides, art © 2021 by David Clark
Trees spread their seeds in many
ways. Some make seed cases that fly
on the wind or float away on streams.
Fruit trees wrap their seeds in a tasty
sweet snack. When birds and animals
eat the fruit, they swallow the seeds
whole. The seeds go right through
the animal’s guts, and get pooped out
in a new place (with a free dose of
fertilizer).
New trees need space. They can’t
sprout in the shade of the parent treee.
The huge, heavy fruits of the Osage
orange trees don’t float or fly. They
are not going anywhere without help.
But the wrinkly green brains are alsoo
tough and bitter. Even pigs and horsees
don’t like to eat them. So...how did thhe
Osage orange tree spread its seeds? Itt
was a mystery.
The Ghost Diners
T
I’ve never met
What these fruits seem to need a stinky fruit I
didn’t like.
is a really huge animal, like an
elephant. Elephants regularly
munch on melon-sized fruits and poop
out the seeds many miles away. But there
are no elephants in the Americas.
At least, there are no elephants now.
But there used to be. During the
last Ice Age, 20,000 years ago, America
was full of giant ground sloths, short-
faced bears, and armored glyptodonts.
Largest of all were the mammoths and
mastodons, furry cousins of the elephant.
All these giants ate plants and fruit. They
would have loved the Osage orange.
If you place an Osage orange fruit on
a fossil mammoth tooth, it’s a perfect
fit. Those giant molars would have made
short work of its tough rind.
A fossil mammoth’s tooth is
perfectly shaped for grinding
up tough, sticky fruit.
ask 27
 Scientists are now
convinced that this is the
solution to the mystery.
Osage oranges evolved to
be eaten by mammoths
and other large Pleistocene
animals. They would have
gobbled up the brain fruit
whole and pooped out the
seeds elsewhere. With their help,
Osage orange trees once spread
all over North America. How do
scientists know? They’ve found
fossil remains of Osage oranges
in every U.S. state and parts of
Canada. So the tree is a kind of
ghost—growing fruit meant to
tempt huge animals that are no
longer here.
New Friends
The last mammoths and giant
sloths died out 10,000 years ago.
So how have the Osage orange trees
survived?
They almost didn’t. Without its animal
All plants partners, the Osage orange almost went
need We’ll extinct. By the 1700s, they were only found
friends. help
now. in a few areas of the southern plains. These
trees hung on with the help of some new
friends—Native Americans.
The Osage and Comanche people
valued the Osage orange tree not for its
A modern bow made of Osage orange wood.
28 ask
fruit, but for its wood. The wood of an
Osage orange is remarkably strong and
smooth. The Osage used it to make
bows and other items. They traded their
bows with other tribes, and later with
Europeans. They may have planted the
seeds to get more trees. European settlers
certainly did.
Farmers discovered that thorny
Osage orange trees would grow into a
thick fence if the tops were trimmed.
The wood also made strong fence posts.
Settlers planted thousands of tree fences
before barbed wire was invented. Today,
Osage orange trees grow along many
country roads, planted by humans for
fences or wood. The mammoths are still
gone. But the tree has a new seed-spread-
ing partner—us.
And if we ever do manage to clone a
mammoth, we’ll have lunch all ready.
His and Hers
Osage orange trees are either male or
female (they are dioecious). Instead of
every tree making flowers with both
ovules and pollen, half the trees make
only flowers with ovules (female trees),
and half the trees make flowers with
pollen (male trees). Only the female
trees bear fruit.
Male flower
(on male tree)
Female flower
(on female trees)

hS
Hey, Sage! Lily in Not all do. A sliced worm’s
California wants to know, fate depends on its species,
how do worms survive when where it’s cut, and the
you cut them in half? amount of damage.
Hey, watch out!
Sometimes the head
part can regrow a tail,
or part of a tail, if it’s
cut below the saddle, or
citellum. But a cut-off
tail end doesn’t regrow
a head. It dies.
Sometimes we can regrow lost head
segments if we still have all our vital
organs, which are in the front.
The more head segments I lose,
the less likely I’ll regrow missing
parts. I can’t survive brainless.
Could humans ever
regrow body parts? New nose, coming
right up!
b
y
Doesn’t each half of an earthworm
become a new worm?
Our bodies have about 100-150 sections—called
segments. Some are more important to survival than
others.
How do worms regrow
body parts?
Scientists are still trying to figure that out. Something in
the worm tells special “master” cells—stem cells—to grow
into missing parts. The injury itself may turn on a genetic
switch. But how it works is a big mystery.
If I’m cut into pieces—
Tiny flatworms are If my head is
champs at regrowing cut in two, even as many as
body parts. I’ll grow two 279—each piece
heads. grows into a new worm.
That’s regeneration!
That’s survival!
Not yet. But if they can
figure out how worms and
starfish do it, who knows?
8
h ey
l ask
 Send your letters to Ask, 1 East Erie Street,
Suite 525, PMB4136, Chicago, IL 60611,
In our March issue or have your parent/guardian email us at
ask@cricketmedia.com.
we asked you to do
something amazing Sophie B.,
with ice. Thanks to age 8,
all you chill creators North Carolina
Ice ice cream
for sharing your cones to keep the
cool ideas! ice cream cold.

Ice Arcade
Xucheng T.,
age 11, Wisconsin

Ice Pie
Bridget, age 8, Texas
Ice pies go in drinks,
making them cold.

Icetown
Andrew B., age 9, Pennsylvania
Lily L., age 8., Minnesota

Dear Marvin, Dear Emma, Dear Bone Pony,

Raccoons are my favorite
animals. Maybe you should
play pranks just on April
Fool’s Day. Remember the blue
marshmallow? Who is your
favorite movie character? Mine
is Rocket the raccoon. I like
woodlands creatures.
From Emma, Vermont
P.S. I like pranks!
I say, if a prank is funny
in April, it’s funny all year!
There should definitely be
more raccoon space movies. In
fact, I’m working on one now.
It’s called Midnight Marvin
and the Martian Marauders
Mighty Mayhem...Oscars, here
we come!
Marvin the Movie Mogul
My favorite animal is an
archaeopteryx. They are so
cool and pretty. I wonder if
you have suggestions for good
dinosaur books?
Sincerely, Piers M.,
age 8, Pennsylvania
P.S. I am good at spelling. I
told my Grandpa how to spell
deoxyribonucleic acid.

30 ask
 Frost Bite
Ice Scooter
Charlise M., age 8,
Ice Lantern Harper S., age 10, Florida
South Carolina
Berry, age 7, China

Polar Library
Josephine S., Snowflake
age 10, Palace
Illinois Paloma V.,
age 5,
California

Luxury Penguin
Ice Hotel
Ryan, age 8,
Oregon Igloo Kitty
My ice hotel is Olivia P.,
for penguins. age 7,
Inside it is very New York
warm. There is a
very good view.
It is at the top
of Mount Everest.
No payment is
required. There is Ice Roller Coaster
a sign that says:
PENGUINS ONLY.
Joseph P., age 8, Pennsylvania

Dear Piers, Dear Plush, See you in 7 years,

Thank you for the impeccably
spelled letter. Archaeopteryx
are superb! My suggestion for
good dinosaur books is to ask
your librarian for everything
they have. Librarians know
even more than I do. Happy
fossil book hunting!
Phonetically,
Bone Pony
Do you know how to make a
time capsule? 1. Dig a hole. 2.
Fill a container with things like
coins, jeans, a mask. Bury your
box and mark the spot. 3.
Wait a year. 4. Wait a year.
5. Wait 5 more years. 6. Open
it and try to remember when
you got this!
Ben Z., age 8, California
Dear Ben,
That sounds fun! I think I’ll put
in all the letters Marvin got
this year with ideas for devious
pranks. I’ll mark the spot with
ice cubes so we can find it.
In anticipation,
Plush

ask 31
 September Contest

Bee Mine
Plants love pollinators, and pollinators
love plants. In so many ways! For this
month’s contest, draw a friendship
card that a flower might send to a bee
or other pollinator, or that a pollinator
might send to a flower—or that you

s
er
Fl o:
ow
might send to your own favorite plant

T
or plant pal. Share your shout-outs,
and we’ll savor the sweetest in an
upcoming issue of Ask.

Contest Rules:
1. Your contest entry must be your very
own work. Ideas and words should not
be copied.
2. Be sure to include your name, age, and
address on your entry.
3. Only one entry per person, please.
4. If you want your work returned, enclose
a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
5. Your entry must be signed or emailed
by a parent or legal guardian, saying it’s
your own work and that no one helped
you, and that Ask has permission to
publish it in print and online.
6. For information on the Children’s Online
Privacy Protection Act, see the Privacy
Policy page at cricketmedia.com.
7. Email a photo or scan of artwork to:
ask@cricketmedia.com, or mail to:
Ask, 1 East Erie Street, Suite 525,
PMB4136, Chicago, IL 60611
Entries must be postmarked or emailed
by September 30, 2021.
8. We will publish the winning entries in an
upcoming issue of Ask.

32 ask
 Bot's

by Ivars Peterson

Flower Numbers
Count the number of petals on 1 + 1 = 2
flowers in your backyard, out in 1 + 2 = 3
the country, or in a picture book. 2 + 3 = 5
You’ll find that the number five 3 + 5 = 8
keeps coming up. Buttercups, pansies, 5 + 8 = 13
tomato blossoms, and geraniums all 8 + 13 = 21, and so on
n.
have five petals.
You may also find flowers with This set of numbers,
3 petals, and others with 8, 13, or 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21,
even 21 petals. But it’s harder to find 34, … goes on to infinity. They are
flowers with 4, 6, 7, or 10 petals called Fibonacci numbers, after the
(unless some have been nibbled). mathematician who made them famous.
Is there something special about Fibonacci numbers show up
the numbers 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21? As all over nature: in the spirals of
a matter of fact, there is is. ppinecones and pineapples, in the swirls
To see what, sttart of snail shells, in flowers and leaves.
with 1. Then add 1 + 1 Why? It migh ht have something
omething to do
= 2. Then add thee two with how pplants and other
numbers on each side living thin
ngs grow, u
of the equal sign. Keep no onne knows or
doing this, and you sure.
get a patter
p rn:
 text and art by Thor Wickstrom

Our garden is
the best ever!
It looks
amazing!

September 2021 Volume 20 Number 7 cricketmedia.com $6.95

Look! We have basil, My squash is thriving! We’ll be Is that supposed to be

oregano, broccoli, tomatoes... eating squash soup and zucchini good news?
bread all winter!
Yes! A pizza
garden!

We planted wild So lovely! I’m growing six kinds My mangoes are

flowers! of lettuce! almost ripe!

A LITTLE LATER...
Let’s go. Tomorrow I love our
we can harvest! garden! Mmm! I love They did a It’s the
their garden great job! best garden
too. ever!