Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

Today, my lab partner, Morgan, and I dissected a flower from the WGHS Gold Garden. We chose a flower from the broccoli plant. Over the dissection, we got to see each part of the flower and then we learned their functions. Through the following pictures, I will explain and show the anatomy of the flower and their role in reproduction.

This is the whole flower at 20x magnification. Inside you can see the top of the stamen, called the anthers. They hold the pollen, which is the grainy-type thing on the anthers.

This is the anther at 40x magnification. This gives us a better look at the pollen.  Anthers are oval sacs in which meiosis takes place. Meiosis in a flower produces haploid male  pollen grains. The middle picture is a close-up picture of pollen.

This picture shows the style and the stigma, part of the carpel. Carpels are also known as pistils, and they are the female parts of the flower. On the right side of the picture, it shows the stigma, the roundish part at the top with the opening at the top; the style is the stalk. The pollen from the anthers usually lands on the top of the stigma, which is sticky. 

To the left is a 40x magnification of the ovary, at the bottom of the carpel. Below is another picture of the ovary, as well as the ovules from inside the ovary. The ovary is another part of the plant where female gametophytes are produced. Pollen is the male gametophyte.

Now that you understand the basic anatomy and functions of a flower's reproductive organs, it is time to explain the whole process. 

This flower is an angiosperm, which means the reproductive process takes place within the flower. It starts when a mature plant produces flowers. Each of the flowers has the male anatomy, the anthers, and the female anatomy, the carpel. Inside of the anthers, every cell goes through meiosis an this produces 4 haploid spore cells. One spore cell is equivalent to one grain of pollen. Pollen grains make up the entire male gametophytes, and they continue to grow until they are released and are transferred to the stigma. Within the ovary of the flower, ovules develop into eight nuclei through a series of divisions. These nuclei and their surrounding membrane create the embryo sac. The embryo sac contains a female gamete, or the egg cell. After the pollen tubes enter the stigma, they access the embryo sac. This creates a zygote which evolves into a seed. Then the cycle starts over again.