Did you know that sunflowers are not really flowers? Crazy, right? Especially since “flower” is even in the name! In this post, we’ll explain these flower-like phenomena and what they really are!
To start, what exactly is a flower? Flowers are the reproductive shoots of the plants that produce them, otherwise known as angiosperms. They are made up of four different floral organs: carpels, stamens, petals, and sepals, going from inside to outside (see diagram). Carpels and stamens are the reproductive organs of the flower. Carpels have ovaries that contain eggs (darker yellow) and a long neck that leads down to it called the style. Pollen originating from the stamens must travel down the style of a carpel to reach the eggs in the ovaries below. Petals, as we all know, are the pretty parts of the flower, the generally multicolored beauties that flank the outside of an otherwise unattractive skeleton of a flower. Finally, there are the sepals, which look like leaves and protect the flowers while they are still buds. When the eggs in flowers’ carpels are fertilized by pollen, the fertilized eggs become seeds and the flower becomes a fruit that stores the seed(s)!
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Complete flowers are ones that have all of these four parts. Some examples include hibiscuses, roses, and tulips. Incomplete flowers lack one or more of these parts. For example, grass actually has incomplete flowers, and we just don’t see them as often because they lack petals! Other types of incomplete flowers have only carpels or only stamens. Some have neither of the two reproductive parts, making them sterile. But we know that you Wednesday Scientists must be wondering: if they lack reproductive parts, what is their purpose? This is where our “fake flowers” come into play, otherwise known as inflorescences!
Inflorescences are clusters of incomplete flowers that can look like a single complete flower. Sunflowers, mentioned earlier, are actually inflorescences. Their central disk consists of nonsterile incomplete flowers, and their “petals” are actually several sterile incomplete flowers! Inflorescences later develop into multiple fruits, which have segments developing from different carpels from the incomplete flowers of an inflorescence. For example, pineapples and figs are multiple fruits! So next time you eat a pineapple, you know that each piece of a pineapple with a spike has come from a particular incomplete flower!
So the next time you visit a garden, remember to take a closer look at the “flowers” you see there. Are they really flowers, or fake flower wannabes? See if you can spot the four basic parts of a flower to figure out what it might be!
Post By: Roshni P. M.
Photo credits: Unsplash, Jessica Johnston, https://unsplash.com/photos/B7V4_EiubYE
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