The Very Attractive Flowers

Most flowers may look and smell pretty however they have a much more important role to play. The flower is vital in plant reproduction or the making of seeds and the growing of new plants. Most flowers have the same basic parts though often it is very hard to see some of these parts. To make it just a bit more confusing, some of the things we call "flowers" are really made up of lots of small flowers.

One part of the flower easiest to find is the petal. The petals help protect the bud. They also help to attract insects and other small animals to the flower to help the plant make their seeds. Inside the flower you may be able to find the stamens and the pistil. These are little stalk like things as shown in the picture at the side.

The pistil is usually the large stalk in the middle of the flower. At the top of the pistil is a sticky knob called the stigma. The pistil in the picture is a from a passionfruit flower and is taken with a microscope.
The stamen are the stalks that surround the pistil. In most flowers there are more than one stamen. On the top of the stamen are the anthers on which the pollen bags sits. Pollen is a very fine powder or dust that is often yellow in color. You can see the pollen on this anther from the same passionfruit flower.
At the bottom of the pistil is the ovary, or seed-box. This is where the new seeds are made. When the pollen from the anthers is carried to the sticky knob on top of the pistil it joins with the ovary to make some seeds. In this ovary you can see all of the ovum that will later turn into passionfruit seeds.