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Project Noah Nature School
Capsicum annuum
This pepper plant is one of our peppers plants with a couple of blooms on it and some buds forming.
This pepper plant is in our school garden next to other pepper plants and tomato plants.
This is one of the Glenn O Swings 4th Grade groups (The White Butterflies): 1. Why do the leaves feel wrinkly? 2. Why are the pedals white? 3. How long does it take to get pollinated?
Spotted on Jul 7, 2021
Submitted on Jul 9, 2021
4 Comments
What do you think will work more quickly? a big wind blowing the pollen in or a bumblebee squeezing itself in and pollinating the plant? What if the flower smelled really good to the native bee and she brought her friends? Would that be better than counting on the wind? What do pepper plant flowers smell like to you?
Pollination can happen quickly if everything happens all at once or it can take several times for the wind to blow hard enough to shake that pollen from the stamen to the pistils. If a big fat bumblebee or a tiny native bee dives right in there, it can happen almost immediately.
The petals are white because the bell pepper plant does not need to be as showy as some other plants to attract pollinators. The bell pepper plants are "self-fertilized" meaning they are able to get the pollen from the stamen through the shape of their cone-shaped flowers and with a little wind, they are fertilized. It does help, though if a bumblebee comes along and sticks her whole head in there!
1. Why do their leaves feel wrinkly? Those wrinkles are the plant’s veins. Those veins provide structure and support to the leaves while they also transport water, nutrients, and sugar to and from the leaves to the rest of the plant. When plants absorb water through their roots, they use these veins to move the water and nutrients to the rest of the plant, just like our veins and arteries.