Male and Female Flower Parts
Frequently awed by their beauty, tempting aroma, or taste, we often forget that flowers are a plant's unit of sexual reproduction, moving sperm to ovum through pollination. Some flowers require the pollen to be transferred by outside forces, such as wind or bees whereas others can self-pollinate. All flowers, however, pollinate using the same male and female sexual organs.
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Stamen
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A flower's male reproductive organ is called the stamen. It produces sperm in the form of pollen, which fertilizes the flower's ovules.
Stamen Parts
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The stamen is composed of the anther, which produces and emits the pollen, and the filament, which holds up and supports the anther.
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Pistil
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The flower's female reproductive organs are collectively called the pistil. Here, ovules get produced to be fertilized by the flower's pollen.
Pistil Parts
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The pistil has three distinct parts: a stigma, which receives the pollen, a style, a tube that transfers the pollen, and the ovary, where ovules are produced and fertilized by pollen.
Perfect and Imperfect
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Some plants grow flowers containing both the male and female reproductive organs. These are called "perfect flowers." Other plants grow flowers with male reproductive organs and flowers with female reproductive organs. These types of blossoms are called "imperfect flowers."
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References
- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of B Balaji
