Episode 15 - Where Did I Come From?

"You know Petra, a storm like the one we've just had really makes you think" said Chelsea Chickpea. "I mean, what's life all about?"

"Well, you did a great job rallying your gang to new growth" Petra Pea replied. "It'll be a feature of my next story. I know it was very tiring, but when you think of what it means it's really worth the effort."

"Pity about the lupins next door," said Chelsea. "As I said, it really makes you think."

I wondered what Chelsea and Petra were thinking about, but as I looked over the chickpea paddock, it came to me. Little blushes of purple of showing in amongst fresh chickpea shoots - FLOWERS - that's the start of what it's all about!

"Look at the flowers we've been able to regrow" Chelsea continued. "I'm so proud of them, they're going to start off a new generation of chickpeas and keep everyone on the farm very happy."

You humans often think of flowers as just pretty things to look at, but believe me they're really something else. They're what our parents tell us about when we're growing up. "Billie, now that you're getting older, you'll need to know about flowers" was what my father said, as Mum blushed. Now let me tell you all about it.

Even though our petals are what you notice most, other parts inside our flowers do the most important work. We make pollen and egg cells inside our flowers. It's the job of the pollen to join up with the egg cells and make a seed. It might sound pretty easy, but it's not - our egg cells are made at the bottom of a long tube inside the flowers, and to get to them, the pollen has to grow through that tube - it's pretty hard work, and the pollen doesn't always make it.

* "I hope it doesn't get too cold now that we're flowering" Chelsea said. "Cold weather is not good for our pollen tubes - and if they don't grow, the pollen won't reach the egg cells and there'll be no seeds. Oh dear, I do so want to be a mother." "I know how you feel Chelsea," Petra replied "we peas have our flower problems too. You know that evil Peaweevil and his mates eat as much of our pollen as they can get their greedy mouthparts onto."

"Making new generations of seeds is not so easy," Petra concluded as she showed Chelsea her stories on "The World's Greatest Threats to Seed Making".

Making new generations of seeds is what being a crop is all about! If Chelsea's gang can't make seeds, all that effort of growing new shoots after the storm will have been wasted. I'd better check the paper - is there cold weather forecast? Now that's another story...

* pic source: The Chickpea Book