Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!

My partner, Celi, and I picked a broccoli flower from the garden to examine and dissect. Before dissecting, we read about the reproductive anatomy of the flower. Flowers have both male and female parts, the male parts are called the anthers and the female parts are the stigma, style and ovaries. Below are pictures we took of the flowers reproductive anatomy through a microscope.

 This picture shows the carpel, which contains the stigma and style. The style is the long tube in the middle and the stigma is the green point at the end of that tube. 

This picture shows the anthers. The anthers are the frilly, curly tips to all the long tubes. 

In this picture, the ovaries are seen inside of the style. The ovaries are little beads located at the base of the style.

 This picture just shows the flower before dissection. The flower is from a broccoli plant in our garden.

Flowers are angiosperms, which means that they reproduce within themselves. Each flower contains all the necessary female and male parts to reproduce. As you know, the male parts are called the anthers. The anthers produce and store all of the flower's pollen.The female part of a flower is called the carpel. it is the innermost part of the flower and is home to all of the female reproductive organs. Inside of the carpel is the style, and inside of the base of the style are the ovaries. The ovaries are responsible for producing female gametophytes for the flowers reproduction. The carpel leo contains the stigma, which is located at the tops of the style. The stigma is a sticky ball that is responsible for collecting pollen. Once the female and male parts of the flower have worked together to produce gametophytes and pollen, the pollination process can begin. Pollination is different for every flower, some flowers spread pollen through the wind, while others use animals like bees. Overall, the flower is able to survive and populate with only the anatomy in itself.