How to Identify the Parts of a Flower

When you find yourself enjoying the complexity and marvelous beauty of a flower you will feel better about yourself when you can identify the parts. What is even nicer is that if you enjoy flowers with younger students, you can help them to learn flower parts too.

Instructions

1. Look carefully at a simple flower. We will begin from the outside to the inside.

2. Refer to the colorful, outer most parts of the flower as petals. Petals are not the same color as the leaves and stems, and their colors attract wildlife pollinators such as bees and birds.

3. Next inside the petals are stamens. The stamen consists of a stalk or tube on the bottom, and an anther (or rectangular bulb) on the top. The stamen is the male organ of the flower, and surrounds the innermost center of the flower. Stamens may be the same color as the petals, or contrasting or complimentary colors.

4. The innermost center of the flower is the pistil. The pistil is the female part of the flower. From the bottom up, the pistil contains the ovary, the tube called the style, and a stigma (or knob shape) at the top. The pistil may be the same color as the stamens or petals, or contrasting or complimentary colors.

5. Look at the entire flower again and identify the petals. Look under the petals to determine if you can find the sepal. The sepal is often a thin green leaf-shape looking flower part that cups the underside of the petals. You will find it between the stem and the petals.

Tips & Warnings

• In its simplest order from outside to inside you can identify: Sepal, Petal, Stamen and Pistil. Notice the first letter patterns: s p s p.

• You will remember stamen from its function, its position inside the flower, and the gender reference "men" at the end. Stamens surround the center, or female part of the flower--the pistil.