The cone shape on which you grow your seeds needs to be attractive to insects. You already have special cells growing near there which are filled with nutrients for feeding the seeds. If you grow a few more, slightly away from the seeds, then insects will come for the free food.

In order to signpost the food, the leaves growing on the spiral cone become specialised, growing more pigmentation visible in the ultra-violet range, which insects prefer, and losing their chloroplasts. We call these “petals”.

Flowers have arrived on the Earth!

You’ll need to lift them up to make them obvious from a distance. That means all your supporting structures need to get bigger and harder, and you’ll need to pump up more water. Or you can spread out sideways, and have more energy to make more flowers.