Parts Of A Flower

By peace | January 8, 2007

There are all sorts of flowers in this world. Some plants, such as the tulip, each have just a single flower. Others, like the dog rose, have a lot of flowers, but each one develops and blooms separately. Many other plants produce flowers grouped together in clusters known as flower heads. Flower heads have many different shapes, and they vary widely in size and in the number of flowers they contain. The world’s biggest individual flower, produced by the giant rafflesia, is completely dwarfed by the world’s biggest flower head. This is grown by the rare South American puya, which reaches a height of nearly 10m.

Parts of A flower
Although flowers may look different from one another, they have basically the same parts.

The lilies and their relatives make up one of the largest families of flowering plants. The male and female parts of a flower often mature at different times. This makes sure that the flower does not pollinate itself.

Flowers have become extraordinarily varied during the course of evolution. Nature has produced them in a tremendous wealth of shapes and colours, and to add to this profusion people have bred flowers that are even more brilliant or bizarre than the ones found in the wild. But behind this baffling array of shapes and sizes, there is a common pattern.

Surrounding the male and female parts of the lily flower is an outer ring, or whorl, of three white sepals, and an inner whorl of three white petals. Because both sepals and petals are identical, they are known as tepals. In the lily flower these tepals work like advertising signs to attract insects in search of nectar. However, not all flowers are like this. In many flowers, only the inner whorl of petals is conspicuous. The sepals that make up the outer whorl may be tough and green, and protect the flower bud. In some plants, the sepals are much bigger and more colourful than the petals and carry out the task of attracting insects.

Reproductive Parts: The lily flower contains both male and female parts. The female parts, or carpels, are at the centre of the flower. They consist of the ovary, where the seeds are produced, and the stigma, which is attached to the ovary by the style. The stigma is the part of the flower which receives pollen during pollination. The male parts of the flower consist of six identical stamens. Each stamen is made up of an anther, supported by a filament. As soon as the pollen is ripe, the anthers split open. When an insect visits the flower, some of the pollen brushes off on its body and will be carried off to the stigma of another flower.

For seed production, all flowers use the same underlying structures. For example, a lily flower can be divided into three parts. The male parts (the stamens) produce the pollen, the female parts ( the carpel) produce the ovules, which will eventually become the seeds. Around both the male and the female parts are sepals and petals which attract insects. When, as in the lily flower, the sepals and petals look the same, they are known as perianth segments, or tepals.

How a flower bud opens? In the lily’s flower bud, the male and female parts are packed tightly together inside the protective casing formed by the sepals and petals (tepals). The flower bud opens because certain parts of it start to grow more quickly than others. The inside of the base of each tepal, for example, grows faster than the outside. This forces the tepal to bend outwards at the point where it is connected to the flower stalk. At the same time, unequal growth along the edges of each tepal makes the folds in it open out.

Uses Of Flowers
Flowers serve many purposes. Flowers are grown by plant lovers as a hobby, they beautify our environments. At home, in office, in schools, almost everywhere you go, flowers help to brighten up the place. Flowers put in a room not only adds beauty to it, it also gives off a nice fragrance. In addition, flowers can bring a smile to people’s face. Sending flowers as condolences, as means of congratulations to a newborn babies, or expressing love, birthday greetings, a way of saying sorry or apology to someone, and so on are great gifts.

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