Flowers

Flowers are a very important part of a plant because they make the seeds that plants need to grow new ones. (Reproduce)

We looked at some flowers (roses) and found out what each different part does.

Here is a diagram of the different parts.

The diagram comes from www.sparklebox.co.uk

The white petals are starting to unfold. The green protective sepal has opened up. The petals are often brightly coloured and help to attract bees to them. The sepal protects the developing flower inside.

The rose flower. You can see the petals and the Stamen.

We carefully pulled the petals off. Now you can see the Stamen which are made up of the anther (brown fluffy bit) and the filament (white stringy bit). The stamen is the male part of the flower. The pollen is on the anther.

Then we pulled off the stamen to show the Pistil (the yellow part in the middle). This is the female part of the flower. The pistil is made up of the stigma the style and the ovary.
Pollen from the male part of the flower gets onto the stigma and travels down the style to the ovary. The pollen joins with an egg and this makes the seed start to grow.

Finally we cut open the ovary at the bottom of the flower to see the seeds growing inside.

When you eat fruit (such as apples, bananas, oranges) you are actually eating the ovary of the flower.