Parts & Function of a Complete Flower Plant

A complete flower is one that contains both male and female reproductive organs. Within the flower, the seeds become fertilized. Then they mature to the point where, once planted, a new flower will grow. We all love flowers since--with their beauty and fragrance--they are the part of a plant that is most likely to attract people, insects and birds.

Identification

Angiosperms are flower-producing plants. There are more than 250,000 known types of angiosperm including the largest, which is the South Asian rafflesia. This flower has a diameter of 3 feet. The reproductive organs are always housed within the flower itself, and when a flower contains both male and female reproductive organs it is said to be a complete, or perfect, flower.

Roots

The complete flower plant is held in place in the soil by the root, which also absorbs nutrients and water from the soil. When a root is a rhizome, like the iris, a bulb, like the hyacinth, or a tuber, like the potato, the root also serves to store carbohydrates. Roots grow beneath the surface of the soil.

Stems

Stems extend up from the root. They support the plant's flowers and leaves and can be woody or herbaceous. On plants that branch, new branches start from buds on the stems. The stems also conduct water and nutrients throughout the entire plant.

Leaves

Leaves grow out of the stems on a stem-like structure called the petiole. Through the blade of the leaf you can often see tiny sections formed by the stipules. Green leaves contain chloroplasts filled with chlorophyll, where photosynthesis transforms light energy, water and carbon dioxide into sugar and oxygen.

Flowers

The flowers house the plant's reproductive organs. They form from a calyx or sepals that protect the developing flower and also hold the petals, or corolla, in place. The corolla is the colorful and fragrant part of the flower that attracts birds and insects to help with pollination. Pollen is formed in the anthers. These are the tips of filaments in the stamen, the flower's male reproductive organs. Whether the flower depends on cross-pollination or if it self-pollinates, the pollen must come into contact with the sticky top of the female pistil. This is called the stigma. Then the pollen is conducted down the tube, called the style, and into the ovary. There, it fertilizes the ovule and finally develops into a seed.

Seeds

Inside the seed's outer covering, called the seed coat, a catyledon is protected until the environmental conditions are right for the seed to sprout and for a new plant to grow. When this happens varies according to each plant's unique features. If you carefully dissect a seed, you can see the catyledon, which looks like a very small plant curled up in a kind of fetal position.

Resources

• Anatomy of a Flower