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Why Do Flowers Grow Fruits – 5 Major Reasons

Like thousands of others on the planet, are you too a fruit lover? Have you ever wondered where these delicacies come from? Or have you ever found yourself wondering why do flowers grow fruits?

If so, then you’re at the perfect place because we’ll be telling you the very reasons for ‘why do flowers grow fruits?’.

Fruits are a worldwide favorite means of taking in nutrition and also a people’s favorite snack to have whenever their mood feels like it. If you too are a lover and regular consumer of these blessings for the people and want to know why do flowers grow fruits? and ways they come into being, then keep reading!

Why Do Flowers Grow Fruits
Tomato fruit and flowers – via Wikimedia

How Do Fruits Come Into Being?

Fruits and flowers seem like two completely different parts of a plant because they have nothing whatsoever in common in terms of their appearance. But whatever fruit you look at had been a flower at some point in its growth.

The transformation of a flower into fruit is a thorough process with multiple steps and a cycle of pollination, fertilization, ripening, and then finally the final fruit is made that is mature.

Reasons For Why Flowers Grow Fruits

Fruits are the part of the plant that holds the seed inside them. The fruit can be like little berries, juicy and larger like oranges and watermelon, or even hard and dry like nuts. The reason why plants grow fruits is their importance for the plants and their reproduction.

Fruits Protect Seeds

Just like human birth, before a fruit comes into being, the flower first needs to be fertilized, which happens after pollination. The ovary then swells, becoming harder to protect the fertilized seed. The petals of the flower fall off to allow the fruit to maximize its growth and then later ripen.

The seed produces hormones telling the ovary walls to multiply and thicken. When the seed is ready to produce plants on its own and develops fully, the fruit produces hormones and enzymes which further helps and allow the fruit to ripen.

So, the fruit keeps the seed protected inside its flesh and makes sure no external force can bring harm to it until the seed is mature enough and the plant is ready for reproduction.

Fruits Help In Seed Spreading

When the fruit is fully ripe, animals such as birds and rodents are attracted to the smell it produces, leading them to consume the fruit while either throwing the seed out at the time of consumption or later through digestion.

And so, these seeds are thrown somewhere on the soil near the mother plant where they start their cycle of life.

Other seeds might not be pleasant or edible for animals but might be constructed in a way so that the seeds are carried away from the mother plant through winds or even gravity. Some seed pods open explosively, throwing and spreading the seeds on their own.

Why Do Flowers Grow Fruits 2
Blue Passion Flower and Fruit – via Wikimedia

Fruits Provide Nutrition

Fruits are a source of important nutrients for both animals and plants and have always been consumed as they play an important part in their diet.

Animals

Animals are heterotrophs meaning they depend on plants for their food. Plants, on the other hand, are autotrophs as they can produce their food.

Animals can easily recognize the scent of a ripened fruit that is ready to be eaten, which contributes to animals’ absolute love and preference for these storehouses of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and more.

This means that the seed surrounded by the fleshy fruit is highly important when attracting animals towards the plant and then further leads to the spread of the seed. Fruits don’t only contribute to the animals’ health but also keep them steadfast and alert hence sustaining the food chain.

Human

Many people opt for a lifestyle where their food choices are quite limited because they go for a vegan and dairy-free diet and so a majority of what they consume is fruits and vegetables.

It has been proven that people with such diets remain healthy with glowing skin, happy stomachs, and satisfied with their part in a healthy environment.

People whose consumption of fruit is more find themselves active in their daily routine with a clearer mind and a positive mindset. This could be because of the healthy energy provided to them that optimizes the outcomes of their daily tasks and increases productivity.

DNA

Every living being has DNA, including plants. In fruits, the DNA is contained in the nucleus of the cells. This DNA in the plants contains certain instructions for them to build the organism and for the sake of the plants’ survival, it contains the instructions for it to reproduce through fruits and seeds.

And so, a major reason for the creation of fruits is that these instructions are coded into the DNA of the plant.

Function In Plants

Producing fruits benefits the plant by ensuring that the species survive and this reproduction highly contributes to that.

Animals eat the fruit, separating the seed during consumption or later through discretion as seeds don’t get digested and so the seed eventually ends up in the soil somewhere near the mother plant which means that the conditions of the environment support the plants’ growth while it starts its cycle of life.

And through this, the growth and production of fruits are important for plants even when they are using quite a significant part of their energy and food for this purpose.


Conclusion

The production of fruits by plants is not just highly important for animals and humans whose diet consists of fruits majorly, but fruits also have a major role in the lives and survivals of plants themselves.

Humans don’t contribute much to the spread of the seeds of the plants as they excrete in toilets instead of on the soil so their contribution towards the survival and reproduction of flowers is lower compared to that of animals.

Making sure that humans too contribute to ‘why do flowers grow fruits?’ is highly important since fruits hold a lot of significance in every household.