Plant Life Basics
Flowers
What an enormous range of colours, shapes, sizes and textures of flowers there are. And don't let's forget all the wonderful and different scents. A summer border in full bloom is truly a marvel to behold.
However, mother nature did not bless them with all these adornments for our pleasure alone.
(Or did she)?
There are essential reasons for all these marvellous attributes which are critical to plant species survival.
The sole purpose of a flower is to ensure reproduction of the species for generations to come, and they do it very well.
They are no more than short branches with specially adapted leaves that forms all the components of a flower which are:
Sepal usually green and smaller than petals. The sepals form a protective cover for the bud.
Pistal is the female part containing the ovary (where the seeds are produced) and the stigma, very often at the tip of the style, which receives the pollen.
Stamen is the male part that bears pollen at its tip which is called the anther.
All these vital parts enable pollination to take place, which is essential for a plant to bear fruit or produce seeds.
Pollination takes place when pollen lands on a stigma by a pollinating agent, typically an insect, or by wind. The stigma, being sticky, ensures the pollen adheres and germinates.
The germinating pollen produces pollen tubes that grow into the stigma and down the style. Fertilisation takes place when the male cells travel down the pollen tubes and reach the awaiting eggs in the ovule.
To learn more about plant life - the basics, just click on any of the links below.
| Plant Life Basics - Roots |
| Stems |
| Leaves |
| Fruits |
| Seeds |
| Plant Life - The Basics Main page |
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