Primaterra

The blooming corresponds to the sexual phase of the vital cycle of a plant. Flowers are the reproductive units of angiosperms and its function is to produce seeds, containing the embryo from which a new plant will grow under proper conditions.

Parts of flowers

A flower is a sprout of defined and limited growing, with modifed and specialised leaves. In a flower, the stem looses its characteristic unlimited growing.

Even though flowers can be made up of different parts, there are some basic units, which are described in the next paragraphs.

The pedicel is the stem that supports a single flower in an inflorescence made up of more than one flower.

The peduncle is the stem that supports either a single flower, in plants that produce only a single flower, or an entire inflorescence.

The torus or receptacle is the end of the pedicel (or the peduncle in single flowers), where the floral appendages (for example, sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils) are attached.

The parts of a flower are arranged in whorls on the torus. The main parts or whorls (starting from the base of the flower or lowest node and working upwards) are as follows:

Calyx: The outermost whorl of modified leaves found in the typical flower. It is the collective term for all the sepals of a single flower. Sepals help protect the developing bud, they are frequently green and inconspicuous, but are petal-like in some species.

Corolla: a whorl of modified leaves just inside the calyx. This is the collective term for all the petals of a single flower, which are usually thin, soft, and colored to attract insects that help the process of pollination.

Corona: an extra-floral set of appendages that protrude from between the corolla and the stamens or from the corolla.

Perianth: the collective term for all the sepals and petals of a single flower.

Androecium, the male reproductive part: consisting of one or two whorls of stamens. A stamen has two parts: anthers and filaments. The anther produces and carries the pollen, which consists of the male reproductive cells. These cells fertilize ovules. The filaments are a thread-like part that hold up the anthers.

Gynoecium, the female reproductive part: consisting of a pistil, with one or more carpels. Each carpel has three parts: stigma, style and ovary. The stigma is at the top of the pistil, it traps the pollen during fertilization. The style is the tube on top of the ovary that holds the stigma. The ovary produce the ovules, female reproductive cells (the eggs).

Types of Flowers:

Most flowers are hermaphrodite, which are called perfect flowers and have both male and female reproductive organs. Certain species have unisexual flowers, either all male parts or female parts, which are called imperfect flowers.

Species with imperfect flowers can have both male and female flowers in the same plant, they are then called monoic. When a species has male and female flowers in different plants it is called dioic.

Complete flowers have stamens, a pistil, petals, and sepals. Incomplete flowers lack one of these parts.

Shapes of flowers

Regular flowers, receive the scientific name actinomorphic, are radially symmetrical so that they can be divided into similar halves along any longitudinal plane passing through the axis.

Irregular flowers, with the scientific name zygomorphic, can be divided into symmetrical halves by only one longitudinal plane passing through the axis.