ELIF: How come we almost never see flowers in the forest?

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ELIF: How come we almost never see flowers in the forest?

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

You mean, aside from… every year if they’re flowering plants, or producing cones nearly every year in the case of conifer trees?

I humbly suggest that you’re not paying very much attention.

Flowers only tend to be large, showy, and colorful in plants that have insect or bird pollinators, to attract the attention of said animals.

Cones are the sex organs of confers. There are some important morphology differences between cones and flowers but they have the same function.

Aside from a handful of examples, all forest trees are either flowering plants or conifers. So they all produce flowers or cones every year except in very harsh conditions.

Plants that depend on wind for pollination tend to have small flowers that are not brightly colored. They tend to be green, yellow, or brown.

Cones on conifers tend to be fairly obvious. They usually have two types of cones, the male and female cones. The male cones are small, numerous produced in the spring, release pollen, then dry out and usually fall off.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Flowers take a lot of energy to make. Plants get their energy from sunlight. So in dense forests the trees shade the ground and don’t leave enough sunlight for flowering plants to thrive.