Where Will Seeds Form on a Plant That Has Two Types of Flowers?
Flowers are the means of sexual reproduction in angiosperms, those plants that produce seeds within an ovary. Flowers can contain male or female sex organs, or both. Depending on the species, plants can have flowers of all one sex, or a mixture of male and female flowers.
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The Perfect Flower
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The perfect flower is defined as one having both the stamen (male) and pistil (female) organs. Flowers missing one of these parts are called imperfect.
Monecious Plants
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Plants that have both male and female flowers are called monecious. Good examples of this are vine plants such as squash, tomato, watermelon and cucumber.
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Blooming Order
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Male flowers are usually formed first. They are instrumental in attracting bees and other insects that help with pollination. By the time the female flowers bloom there is ideally a steady stream of pollinators visiting the plants.
Blooming Basics
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Female flowers can usually be distinguished from the male by a swelling beneath the petals that houses the ovary. This is readily seen on pumpkin plants where an immature pumpkin sits just under the petals waiting for fertilization.
Female Pollination
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Since the female flowers contain the ovary, the development of the ovules into seeds occurs in the female flower. Pollination can be from a male flower on the same plant or from pollen transported from another.
Impotence
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Sometimes when male and female flowers bloom on the same plant, the male is impotent. In that case the female flowers are totally reliant on help from bees, insects, animals and sometimes humans for pollination.
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- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of WRI Staff
