How Do Apples Grow

How Do Apples Grow

When you bite into a juicy apple, you're eating part of a flower. Fruit comes from flowers.

In winter, an apple tree is bare. It's hard to imagine it covered with flowers or fruit. But even in the cold and snow, tiny leaf buds and flower buds are waiting to open.

Inside each leaf bud are tiny, curled-up leaves. Inside each flower bud are all the parts of an apple flower. Apple flowers are pink and white, and sweet to smell. And each flower is the beginning of an apple.

When spring comes, there are more hours of sunlight. The days are longer and warmer. The leaf buds open. Tiny green leaves appear on each twig. When the apple tree is covered with leaves, the flower buds begin to open. Up close, you can see bunches of small pink-and-white flowers at the end of each twig.

Each flower can become an apple. But all the right things must happen first. An apple flower has many parts, and each has a special job to do. Around the outside are the sepals. They form a little cup to protect the rest of the flower. As the flower blossoms, the sepals open too. The pretty, colored petals and sweet, flowery smell bring many insects and birds to the apple tree. These animal helpers are needed for flowers to make fruit.