Flower

Typical flower

Flower is most showy part of the plants. Everybody whether human or a bee or even birds is attracted by the color, shape and size of a flower. World market is such a lucrative bonus for florists around the globe. Few people like the florists and botanists know very well about the different parts of a flower. But for most other people technical terms are like nonsense and yes sometimes we need too even just to know what. Look at the figure every part of typical flower, Hibiscus flower is labelled. We may wonder when we encounter somewhere terms like gynoecium, androecium, pollens, stigma etc. Here I describe some common terms that people use to tell about a flower.

Petals: 

The beautiful white part of the above flower is called petal. Petals are ribbon like part and are blessed with different colors and layers and arranged in unique and fashionable manner. The arrangement of petals is different for different species of flower.

Sepals or Calyx: 

See the label in the photo. Calyx or sepals are the green part of the flower. The calyx are found at the base of the petals on the outside. Calyx are green in color.

Epicalyx: 

Few plants have the epicalyx. Most plants do not have epicalyx. the epicalyx are the another green part of a flower. They can be seen at the base of the calyx.

Stigma: 

The part of a flower that protrude outside over the petals are of two groups. The group that when you touch do not stick any colorful particles in your fingers comprises the stigma. Stigma is part of the female reproductive part of the flower. Stigma when the plant mature recieves male gametes or pollens. The pollen will then travel down to reach the Ovary.

Ovary:

Ovary is the female reproductive organ of the flower. You can find the ovary at the base of a petals and calyx. If you cut the base of the flower you will see a kind of outgrowth part. There inside you will see the ovary in most plants.

Anther:

These are found close to the stigma in a bisexual flower. That is a flower that bear both male and female reproductive parts. Anther are like testicles in animals. Within the anther there are lot of young pollen grains or male gametes of plants. When the flower become mature and ripen, the pollen grains come out and cover the anther. That's the time which you touch a flower some colorful powder stick in your fingers. Those dusty particles are the pollens or the pollen grains.

You may also encounter these terms like

Androecium: 

Androecium is what they called the male reproductive part of a flower. It comprises of the anther and its pollen.

Gynoecium:

Gynoecium is what is called the female reproductive part of the flower. It comprises of the stigma style (the lengthen pipe that extends from stigma to ovary) and the ovary.

See also: Complete and incomplete flowers.