Moving pollen from anther to stigma

What is self-pollination?

Pollen fertilizing the same flower or plant

The Plant Pollination Quiz – Facts Worth Knowing

Some orchids lure male bees by looking and smelling like female bees, and the plant pollination quiz explores how plants persuade animals and wind to move their pollen. See what Charles Darwin learned from orchids, how bats pollinate agave and why figs need tiny wasps.

Start the Plant Pollination Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Pollination
What is pollination?
Self
What is self-pollination?
Wind
Which plants are mostly wind-pollinated?
Deceive
How do some orchids trick bees?
Bats
Which plant used for tequila is pollinated by bats?
Birds
Which flower colors often attract hummingbirds?
Fig
Which insect pollinates figs?
Carrion
Which flowers attract flies with the smell of rotting meat?
Water
Which plants can be pollinated through water?
Hand
Which crop is often pollinated by hand outside its native Mexico?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: What is pollination?
Answer: Moving pollen from anther to stigma
It allows fertilization.
Q2: What is self-pollination?
Answer: Pollen fertilizing the same flower or plant
Peas often self-pollinate.
Q3: Which plants are mostly wind-pollinated?
Answer: Grasses and many trees
Their flowers are small and dull.
Q4: How do some orchids trick bees?
Answer: By mimicking female bees
Males try to mate with the flower.
Q5: Which plant used for tequila is pollinated by bats?
Answer: Agave
Long-nosed bats visit its flowers.
Q6: Which flower colors often attract hummingbirds?
Answer: Red and orange
Many bees can't see red well.
Q7: Which insect pollinates figs?
Answer: Fig wasp
Each fig species has its own wasp.
Q8: Which flowers attract flies with the smell of rotting meat?
Answer: Corpse flowers
Flies think they found food.
Q9: Which plants can be pollinated through water?
Answer: Some seagrasses
Pollen floats or drifts underwater.
Q10: Which crop is often pollinated by hand outside its native Mexico?
Answer: Vanilla
Edmond Albius invented the method in 1841.

The Plant Pollination Quiz – How Pollen Travels

Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male anther to the female stigma, allowing plants to make seeds. Some plants pollinate themselves, but most rely on wind, water or animals to carry pollen between flowers.

Animal-pollinated flowers use colors, scents, shapes and nectar to attract visitors. Bees favor blue and yellow flowers, hummingbirds red ones, moths and bats pale night-blooming flowers and flies sometimes foul-smelling blooms. Some orchids even trick insects with fake mates.

Wind-pollinated plants like grasses and pines release huge amounts of light pollen, which is why they cause hay fever. Where natural pollinators are missing, people pollinate crops by hand, as with vanilla, a method invented by Edmond Albius on Réunion in 1841.

What This Quiz Teaches

Science students and gardeners will enjoy these questions.

What pollination is
How wind pollination works
How flowers attract animals
How orchids deceive bees
Why vanilla is hand-pollinated

Did You Know?

Some flowers only open at night.
Bees can see ultraviolet patterns.
Corn silks catch wind-blown pollen.
Some plants heat their flowers.
Lizards pollinate some island flowers.