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| This picture shows a close-up of the female flowers of a sweet chestnut. The green spikey parts will grow larger and sharper and protect the seeds inside if pollination and ferlilization have taken place. Firstly an insect must have picked up some pollen, from a male flower, and then it must brush against the yellow parts you see sticking out of the top of each female flower. This is where the stigma is. Once the pollen has reached the stigma the flower has been pollinated. What happens next is the pollen grain (pollen) grows a long tube down into the middle of the flower so that an ovule inside the ovary there can be fertilised. This will then grow into a seed. We can eat these when they are ripe - sweet chestnuts. | ||