Flowers

When you have finished this page, try the Flowers Quiz.

A flower is a part of the plants called angiosperms that holds the plant’s reproductive organs. They are formed from buds. The flower is attached to the tip of a stem at a point called the receptacle.

There are four basic flower parts. They are, going from the outside of the flower to the inside

Sepals: A group of leafy like parts at the base of the flower altogether called the calyx.

Petals: The colorful parts of the flower arranged within the sepals – altogether called the corolla.

Stamens: The male part of the flower within the petals or corolla. They contain sacs holding pollen, the male sex cells and are called anther sacs.

Carpels: The female part of the flower at its very center altogether called the ovary and also the pistil. At the bottom of the pistil are the eggs or ovules which are the female sex cells. When these tiny ovules become fertilzed with pollen they form seeds. The ovary then develops into fruit.

The number of flower parts differs from flower group to flower group and is but one of the ways to tell the different plants apart. In the monocots, or plants whose seeds have one seed leaf, the parts tend to come in groups of threes. In dicots or plants with seeds with more than one seed leaf, the parts tend to come in twos or fours or five.

Flowers can be without stamens, or without carpels or can have both.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *