Stem
Holds the flower up where pollinators can find it, and carries water up from the roots and sugars from the leaves.
- Carries water in
- Xylem
- Carries sugars in
- Phloem
Education example
Read-only showcaseA flower, part by part
A botanical section filed by function, with a pollen tube traced from stigma to ovule.
100%
Everything on this diagram
The same content as the picture, as text: every part and what it says when you open it.
Leaf
Makes the plant's food by photosynthesis, using light, water and carbon dioxide - and so pays for every flower.
- Makes
- Sugars, by photosynthesis
- Takes in
- Carbon dioxide, through stomata
Petals
Coloured and often scented, to draw pollinators in. Together the petals are called the corolla.
- Together called
- The corolla
- Attract
- Insects and birds, by colour and scent
Sepals
The green leaf-like parts under the petals. They wrapped and protected the flower while it was a bud.
- Together called
- The calyx
- Protect
- The bud before it opens
Receptacle
The swollen tip of the stalk that every other part of the flower grows from.
Holds: Every part of the flower
Nectaries
Small glands at the base of the flower that make nectar, the sugary reward that brings pollinators in - and brushes them against the anthers on the way.
- Make
- Nectar
- Reward
- Bees, butterflies and birds
Filaments
The stalks that hold the anthers up, where a visiting insect will brush against them. A filament and its anther together make a stamen.
- Hold up
- The anthers
- With an anther, make
- A stamen
Anthers
Make pollen. Each grain carries the male sex cells, and is carried away on an insect or on the wind.
- Make
- Pollen
- Pollen carries
- The male sex cells
Ovary
Holds the ovules. After fertilisation its wall swells and ripens into the fruit.
- Holds
- The ovules
- Becomes
- The fruit
Ovules
Each holds an egg cell. When a pollen tube reaches one and fertilises it, the ovule develops into a seed.
- Each holds
- An egg cell
- Become
- Seeds
Style
The stalk joining the stigma to the ovary. A pollen grain that lands on the stigma grows a tube all the way down it to reach an ovule.
- Joins
- Stigma to ovary
- A pollen tube
- Grows down it
Stigma
The sticky tip that catches pollen. Pollen landing here from another flower of the same kind is pollination.
- Catches
- Pollen
- Is
- Sticky, to hold it
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