Blog Post #10 - Anthers Stigmas and Styles, Oh my

This is a picture of anthers surrounding the stigma. They are different reproductive parts of the  flower. When a flower has both male and female parts, it is considered perfect. With some flowers, the male and female parts are located in separate flowers, but with other flowers, the male and female plants are completely different, such as with lupine.

This is a view (40x) of the female anatomy of a flower called the carpel. The carpel consists of a stalk called a style with a sticky tip called a stigma. It it's the sticky tip to that the pollen grains stick to.

Here is a view (40x) of the male reproductive part of a flower, known as the stamen. It has a stalk called the filament that comes up from the base of the flower, and at the end is the anther. This part of the stamen makes and releases pollen, which hold the plant's male gametes.

This is a picture of a flower that has had all of the parts stripped away except the ovary, which has been cut open and has tiny ovules still inside of it, and some of these ovules can be seen still inside of the ovary.

The plant uses all of these parts to reproduce. It uses the stamen to spread pollen, and fertilize the carpel. The pollen is spread in many different ways, such as through bees. The pollens sperm goes down the stamen and into the ovary, fertilizing the ovules.