Process

• This bee is helping pollination and fertilization along.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  The process of creating seeds begins with pollination. Pollen is manufactured by male plant parts, then delivered to female plant parts either by creatures, water or wind. When the delivery is successful, pollination has occurred. If sperm within the pollen successfully joins with an egg contained in the female flower part -- the pistil -- fertilization has taken place. That union results in the beginnings of a seed, which develops in the ovary of the pistil. The ovary, meanwhile, begins developing into fruit. The word "angiosperm" describes this situation, roughly translating to "seed within a vessel."
  
  

Evolution

• In the Cretaceous period, as the dinosaurs experienced the end of their time on Earth, flowering plants were at the beginning of theirs. They appeared about 140 million years ago, a lack of fossil evidence shrouding their ancestors in mystery. They are the newest kinds of plants, but have since become dominant on land. As of 2011, The Plant List, an online resource tracking all known plant species as they are identified, lists 352,000 species of angiosperms. Compare that with gymnosperms, to which belong all the world's conifers: there are only 1,000 species of those.
  
  

Sexes

• Roses are hermaphrodites.Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty Images
  
  Not all flowers create seeds, since some flowers are male and lack the required pistil, though possessing the stamens necessary for pollen. Female plants have the opposite condition, possessing a pistil, but no stamen. A third possibility exists among angiosperms in the form of hermaphroditic flowers, which boast all the parts needed to reproduce. Most angiosperms, about 90 percent, are hermaphroditic.
  
  

Importance

• Cotton fibers are ready to be pulled from seed remnants for a later incarnation as clothing.Brand X Pictures/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
  
  Angiosperms are an important plant group for humans. Since fruit is only created in the process of producing seeds, and since angiosperms alone flower, no fruit would exist but for anthophytes. Angiosperms are also behind our perfumes, as petals produce scents, building materials and some medicine and clothing. Aspirin originated in willow bark, for instance, while cotton comes from seed fibers of the cotton plant.