Parts of aflower

Sepals : These are hard, leaf-like structures around the base of a flower.

• They protect the bud before it blooms into a flower.
• These are green in colour in most of the plants.
• The sepals are collectively called as calyx.
• The number of sepals varies from plant to plant.

Petals: These are brightly coloured portions of a flower.

• They petals are collectively called as corolla.
• They are brightly coloured so as to attract insects and birds for pollination.
• The number of petals is almost equal to the number of sepals in a flower.
• In some flowers, the petals and sepals combine to form a round structure called as tepal.

Stamens : The stamens are the male reproductive parts of a flower. Stamen is made up of a filament and anther.

• Anther is a bilobed structure at the tip of the filament.
• Anther contains male reproductive cells, the pollen grains.
• Pollen grains are the male reproductive cells which are very light, that they can be carried away by wind.
• Pollen grain has a thick covering made up of two layers, outer exine and inner intine.

Pistil : The pistil is the female reproductive part of a flower. It is made up of the stigma, the style and the ovary.

• Stigma is a bulged sticky structure at the tip of the pistil. As it is sticky it receives pollen grains from the male reproductive structure.
• Style is a long tube like structure which allows pollen grain to travel from stigma to ovule, the egg cell.

• Ovary is a large lobed structure at the base of the carpel. It contains the female reproductive cells, the ovules. The number and arrangement of ovules differ in different flowering plants.