The PARTS of a FLOWER and their FUNCTIONS

Image: Parts of a flower- Blogger

Flowers are reproductive organs of the higher plants or phanerogams with a transitory nature, whose fundamental function is the continuity of the species, becoming a fruit, which contains the seeds that will guarantee the new generations of plants. Next, in this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we are going to study the parts of a flower and their functions.

Index

1. Plants with flowers
2. Parts of a flower
3. Functions of a flower
4. The pistil and stamen of a flower
5. Types of flowers

The flower is a specialized part of the plants that, through the process of sexual fertilization, turns into fruit, giving rise to the seeds. Flowering plants are therefore the most advanced plant structures on Earth and, furthermore, the most predominant, receiving the name of angiosperms.

The first flowering plants appeared on our planet at the beginning of Cretaceous period, about 125 million years ago. These later occupied almost all habitats, except those with a more extreme climate.

The flowering plants are characterized by having a highly branched root system which serves to establish itself, absorb water and nutrients. From the roots grow vertical stems, whose objective is to keep the leaves in the direction of the sun, so that they can carry out photosynthesis in the best possible way. Flowers grow at the junctions between the leaves and the stem.

In this other lesson we will discover how the plant photosynthesis.

Among the parts of a flower and its functions, it is necessary to highlight its most characteristic structure, which is usually circular in shape. The main parts are as follows:

• The corner that supports the flower is the peduncle.
• The part where the flower sits, which is a widening of the peduncle, is known as floral thalamus or receptacle.
• The perianth the two make it up whorls sterile: corolla and calyx.
• On the outside are the sepals, similar to leaves, whose function is to protect the flower when it is only a bud, and that together form the chalice.
• The corolla is composed of the petals, of strong colors, which attract insects that pollinate the flowers. These are formed after the sepals.
• In the center is the carpel, what a stigma sticky, the style and a slightly swollen area called ovary, within which is the Ovum, containing the egg cell. They constitute the female organs of the flower (gynoecium).
• Around the stigma are they stamens, made up of a stalk with a pollen sac on top, which, when ripe, produces a large quantity of small pollen grains. They constitute the male organs of the flower (androecium).

Image: Parts of a flower- Blogger

The main function of flowers is reproduction. The fertilization of the flowers takes place when a pollen grain is deposited on the stigma, which transits through the pollen tube until it reaches the ovary. Pollen comes from the stamens inside the plant or is carried by an insect or the wind from another flower of the same type.

The natural pollination therefore it can be produced in a direct, or self-pollination, when the stigmas receive pollen from the same flower, called hermaphrodite, or crossed or indirect, which is the case of pollen from one flower that passes to the stigmas of another specimen. The pollination carried out by the wind is known as anemogam and the one carried out by insects, entomogamous.

When pollen is deposited on top of the carpel, this assimilates the stigmatic fluid existing in this area and is transformed, leading to germination. From the grain the pollen tube, an appendix that runs through the style and in the ovary it is introduced inside the ovule, giving rise to fertilization. The ovary swells and forms a fruit, inside which will be the seed, which has the embryo of another new plant.

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The pistil and stamen are two very important parts of the flower. Let us remember that flowers are essential for the creation of seeds and, in it, we find a male part called the stamen and a female part called the pistil. They are two basic parts to allow the plant reproduction. Here we analyze each of these parts in detail.

What is the flower stamen

As we have already mentioned, the stamen is the male part of the flower. It is composed of two parts: the anther, which is the one that carries the pollen and the filament, which is the thread that supports the anthers.

What is the pistil of the flower

The pistil is the female part of the flower and has 3 parts that we analyze here:

• Stigma: it is the part that traps pollen because the texture is sticky
• Style: it is the tube that supports the stigma and that serves as a conductor of the ovary and the ovules of the plant
• Ovary: it is the key element that allows the reproduction of plants and that contains the ovules inside

You should know that there are flowers that can have only male or female parts as well as a mixture of both parts. In the case that they only have one of the parts, these plants are known as "imperfect" and some examples of this would be melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, etc.

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Depending on the type of shapes and envelopes we can distinguish different types of flowers:

• Acclaimed or naked: They do not have a floral envelope, that is, they lack corolla and calyx.
• Haploclamide or monoclamide: They have only chalice.
• Diploclamidae: that have two envelopes, being able to be homoclamide, with the two similar whorls, or heteroclamide, with both different.

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