What is the primary purpose of flowers to a plant?
To produce seeds for reproduction.
What is the difference between complete and incomplete flowers?
A complete flower has sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils. An incomplete flower lacks one or more of these four basic flower parts.
How are staminate flowers different from pistillate flowers?
Staminate, or male, flowers lack pistils and bear only stamens; pistillate, or female, flowers lack stamens and bear only pistils.
Four main parts of a flower?
Petals Sepals Stamens Pistils
Petals?
- Petals: the most conspicuous parts of a flower; lend beauty to flowers and attract insects.
Sepals?
- Sepals: green, leaflike structures attached to the edge of the receptacle; enclose and protect the flowers petals.
Stamens?
- Stamens: structures consisting of a slender elongated stalk (the filament) and an enlarged structure at the end (the anther); produce pollen.
Pistils?
- Pistils: vase-shaped structure, usually the central structure of the flower, composed of three parts (the stigma, which receives the pollen; the style, which is the stalklike structure that connects the ovary to the tip of the pistil; the ovary, which produces the eggs); functions to reproduce cells (egg cells) of the flower, and produces fruits and seeds after the eggs are fertilised.
Flower?
Flowers, with the seeds and fruits they produce, make up the reproductive parts of flowering seed plants.
Pedicel?
Flower stalk.
Receptacle?
The end of a flower stalk, designed to hold the developing seeds.
Corolla?
The petals are called the flowers corolla.
Bract?
Special leaves that appear to be petals.
Monoecious?
Any plant on which both staminate and pistillate flowers are produced in the same plant.
Inflorescence?
Clusters of flowers on a single stem.
Photoperiodism?
Plants require a definite period of light and darkness before they will flower.
Horticulturalist?
Agricultural technicians who specialise I’m growing flowers, fruits, vegetables, and shrubs.
How are fruits and seeds formed?
Pollen lands on the stigma (pollination), and sperm cells make their own way to the egg cells in the flowers ovary, fertilising them. Fertilisation causes the egg cells to develop into seeds, and the ovary develops into the fruit.
What is the difference between cross-pollination and self-pollination?
Self-pollination occurs when pollen is transferred from the anther to the stigma of a pistil in the same flower or to another flower of the same plant. Cross-pollination occurs when the pollen from an anther of one plant is transferred to a stigma of a flower on another plant.
Distinguish between pollination and fertilisation and tell how each is involved in the reproduction of flowering plants.
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from anther to the stigma portion of a pistil. Fertilisation is the fusion of a sperm cell with an egg cell within the ovule. Pollination brings sperm cells to the pistil, making fertilisation possible; fertilisation determines the blueprint for the new plant and triggers the development of the seed and fruit.
Fruit?
When the plants ovary is fully ripened it is called fruit.
Nectar?
A sweet tasting, watery liquid produced by plants.
Hay fever?
When this pollen is breathed into the lungs, it causes an allergic reaction in some people which is Hay Fever.
Gamete?
The sperm and egg.
