Seed Making Flower Bits: The Parts of Flowers and What They Do

Fragrant, fun and wonderful flowers brighten your day and tickle your nose, but they also have solid science that keeps them functioning. A flower is a reproductive device made up of several different parts that work together to make it go. Usually, these parts are hidden deep inside, where within the petals of a flower lie a number of smaller parts that work to help the plant reproduce. At the end of the process, a seed forms in the ovule, located on the inside of the ovary.

Process

Most flowers consist of male and female parts that each play a role in producing seeds. The part of the flower that becomes the seed is called the ovule. The ovule is located within the ovary, which is at the bottom of the style, located beneath the stigma. The seed that grows from a flower is the result of many flower parts that work together to produce the finished product.

During the reproductive process, a stigma that has received pollen carries the pollen through the style to the ovary. Inside the ovary are ovules, the female egg cells in the flower. Once fertilized by the pollen, the female egg cells become seeds. Some plants have few ovules and produce only one seed, while other flowering plants have many ovules in their ovary, and produce many seeds.

Parts

The ovule, style, and stigma make up the female part of a flower, called the pistil. The ovary becomes the fruit around the seeds formed from the fertilized ovules. The parts of the stamen, the male part of the plant, are the filament, a thin stem-like structure that holds the anther. The anther is a ball at the end of the filament which holds the pollen.
Sterile Parts

Parts of the flower that do not participate directly in the seed-producing process are the petal and the sepals. The sepals are the leafy part of the plant that helps protect the petals. The petals help protect the reproductive parts of the flower. In addition, petals are often fragrant and help attract pollinating insects to the flower.

Seeds! How the bleep do they work?

A seed can have many functions in the life cycle of the plant. A seed can help feed the growing plant as well as protect it. Some seeds have developed to help their species survive by dispersing themselves away from the mother plants. Dandelion seeds that float away in the wind are an example of seeds that are made to disperse, as well as seeds in berries and fruit that are eaten by animals and deposited elsewhere to grow.