How Flowers Work
Discover how petals, scents, and colors act as high-stakes advertisements for the animal world. Learn to read any bloom's hidden cues, decode its pollinator partners, and trace its transformation from flower to seed.
Like Duolingo, but for How Flowers Work. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Reading the Floral Billboard and The Hidden Deal Behind the Bloom. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in How Flowers Work
- Green leaves handle the plant's main food production via photosynthesis, not petals
- Bright petals function primarily as colorful billboards to catch the eyes of flying birds and insects from far away
- A flower spends precious energy on showy petals solely to secure pollination and reproduce
- Stripes and radiating lines on petals act as runways pointing an insect directly toward hidden nectar
- Speckles and contrasting dots inside a flower's throat show visiting insects where to land and crawl
- These patterns ensure the visiting bug brushes past pollen-bearing parts on its way to the reward
- Insects like bees can see ultraviolet light, which human eyes cannot detect
- Many flowers that appear plain or single-colored to us absorb ultraviolet light near their center, creating a dark target
- These invisible UV bullseyes help flying bees instantly spot where to land
- Producing fragrant scent oils requires energy, so flowers conserve it when their target partners are asleep
- Plants time their strongest perfume bursts to match the exact flying hours of their specific pollinators
- Moth-pollinated flowers typically stay faint by day and pump out heavy sweet scents after dark
- Flat, wide flowers like daisies provide an accessible landing platform
- Beetles and flies have short, simple mouthparts and cannot reach into narrow flower tubes
- Open bloom shapes leave pollen and nectar completely exposed to any generalist visitor
- Narrow floral tubes and spurs conceal nectar far down at the bottom of the flower
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How Flowers Work the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What is the main reason a flower grows bright, flashy petals?
Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.
How to learn How Flowers Work, step by step
Go in order. 11 short levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes in all, five minutes a day.
- 1
Reading the Floral Billboard
- Decoding Petals, Guides, and Scents
- Matching Flower Shapes to Pollinator Partners
- 2
The Hidden Deal Behind the Bloom
- Pollen, Nectar, and Floral Trickery
- From Pollinated Bloom to Traveling Seed
2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Questions about How Flowers Work
How do I learn How Flowers Work?
Go in order: start with Reading the Floral Billboard, then The Hidden Deal Behind the Bloom. On Tomo that's 11 short levels, about 22 minutes in all, played five minutes a day. Start free and play the first level in under a minute.
Is there a Duolingo-style app for How Flowers Work?
Yes. Tomo works like Duolingo: short daily lessons, streaks and quick quizzes. How Flowers Work is one of its free courses, and you can type any other topic to get a course of your own.
Is the How Flowers Work course free?
Yes. How Flowers Work is playable on Tomo's free plan, which doesn't expire. No credit card, no waitlist. Download the app and start your first lesson.
How long does it take to learn How Flowers Work?
11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes of play in total. It's built for five minutes a day, so you finish it a little at a time instead of all at once.
Do I need any background to start How Flowers Work?
No. It's pitched at a beginner level, so it starts where you are and builds up. If you can tap a phone, you can start.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
How Flowers Work is taught in the Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Journey from the microscopic mechanics of a blooming flower to the gargantuan physics of a dying star. Master the interconnected systems that govern our atmosphere, our forests, and the vast reaches of space.
Start How Flowers Work today.
Download Tomo, search How Flowers Work, and play your first lesson in under a minute.