Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson CC · Topic 29: The apple tree
200. How an apple grows
Goal: Your child can name the parts of an apple blossom and follow a blossom as it becomes an apple.
You'll need
- A twig of apple blossoms (or crab apple) with some buds still closed
- A hand lens (magnifying glass)
- A nature notebook and a pencil (colored pencils if you have them)
What's in the book
The lesson has a leading thought and thirteen observations on the winter bud, the blossom and its parts, the young leaves, what remains after the petals fall, and a comparison with pear, plum, cherry and peach.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Late April or May, when apple or crab apple trees bloom. Then look again once a week as the apples grow. Watch bees from a step back.
The leading thought
The purpose of the apple blossom is to produce apples which shall contain seeds to grow into more apple trees.
The blossom
Sketch or describe an open apple blossom. How many petals? What is their shape and arrangement?
Why do the buds seem so pink and the blossoms so white?
Stamens and pistils
How many stamens are there? Are they all of the same length?
How many pistils do you see? How many stigmas are there?
From blossom to apple
After the petals fall, what of the blossom remains? What part develops into the apple?
Find a blossom whose petals have just dropped. The little green knob below is the baby apple.
Watch it grow
Watch an apple develop; look at it once a week and tell what parts of the blossom remain with the apple.
Tie a bit of yarn loosely on one twig so you can find the same apple each week.
Nature notebook
Draw an open blossom from above and label petals, stamens and stigmas. Each week, draw your marked apple at its true size.
Afterwards
Visit the marked apple once a week until midsummer and keep drawing it.
Answers to the book's problems
Five petals, pink in the bud because the outside is pinker than the inside. About twenty stamens. Five styles (stigmas), joined at the base. After the petals fall, the calyx lobes stay on the end of the apple (the dry "blossom end"), and the part below the flower swells into the apple.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.