Article
Article
- Botany
- Plant physiology
- Flower
Flower
Article By:
Eyde, Richard H. Department of Botany, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Last reviewed:January 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.261900
- Floral Diversity
- Concentric units
- Symmetry
- Sexuality
- Nectaries
- Inflorescence
- Evolution
- Traits of early flowers
- Diversification and coevolution
- Pollination
- Outcrossing
- Formation
- Anatomy
- Stamen
- Carpel
- Ovule
- Fertilization
- Embryo sac
- Pollen tube
- Utilization
- Related Primary Literature
- Additional Reading
A higher plant's sexual apparatus in the aggregate, including the parts that produce sex cells and closely associated attractive and protective parts (Fig. 1). “Flower” has been used broadly enough by some botanists to include the reproductive equipment of cycads, conifers, and other plants with naked seeds. Here, however, it will be limited, as is usual, to the angiosperms, plants with enclosed seeds and the unique reproductive process called double fertilization. In its most familiar form a flower is made up of four kinds of units arranged concentrically. The green sepals (collectively termed the calyx) are outermost, showy petals (the corolla) next, then the pollen-bearing units (stamens, androecium), and finally the centrally placed seedbearing units (carpels, gynoecium). This is the “complete” flower of early botanists, but it is only one of an almost overwhelming array of floral forms. One or more kinds of units may be lacking or hard to recognize depending on the species, and evolutionary modification has been so great in some groups of angiosperms that a flower cluster (inflorescence) can look like a single flower.
The content above is only an excerpt.
for your institution. Subscribe
To learn more about subscribing to AccessScience, or to request a no-risk trial of this award-winning scientific reference for your institution, fill in your information and a member of our Sales Team will contact you as soon as possible.
to your librarian. Recommend
Let your librarian know about the award-winning gateway to the most trustworthy and accurate scientific information.
About AccessScience
AccessScience provides the most accurate and trustworthy scientific information available.
Recognized as an award-winning gateway to scientific knowledge, AccessScience is an amazing online resource that contains high-quality reference material written specifically for students. Contributors include more than 10,000 highly qualified scientists and 46 Nobel Prize winners.
MORE THAN 8700 articles covering all major scientific disciplines and encompassing the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology and McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science & Technology
115,000-PLUS definitions from the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms
3000 biographies of notable scientific figures
MORE THAN 19,000 downloadable images and animations illustrating key topics
ENGAGING VIDEOS highlighting the life and work of award-winning scientists
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY and additional readings to guide students to deeper understanding and research
LINKS TO CITABLE LITERATURE help students expand their knowledge using primary sources of information