FLOWERING PLANTS

These plants have flowers which house all reproductive organs. The male parts of a flower are the pollen, anther, & filament. The female part of the flower is made up of the seed, ovary, sigma, & style. Flowers are often designed to attract a pollinator. Plants co-evolved with the first land animals to become essential third parties in plant sex. Flowers are reproductive structures whose function is to produce fertilized seeds. Pollinators play an important part in flower evolution as the relationship between the flower & pollinator is extremely close & one cannot live without the other.

COMPLETE FLOWERS

A complete flower has both male & female reproductive organs, petals, sepals, & all other flower structures present in one flower. All complete flowers are also perfect flowers. These flowers are bisexual with all flower parts present.

PERFECT FLOWERS

Many plants have bisexual flowers where there are both stamens & the pistil. To avoid self pollination many flowers only are receptive to pollen at a certain time. A perfect flower is not always a complete flower, as anything missing will disqualify it. These flowers have both male & female sex organs.

INCOMEPLETE FLOWERS

A flower having sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils is known as complete. A flower lacking one or more of such structures is considered incomplete. These flowers are either male or female.

PLANT SEXUALITY

Dioeceus plants have separate sexes on separate plants, Dioeceus means “Two Households”. Female plants only bear female flowers while male plants produce only male flowers. The flowers of these plants are always incomplete. Dioeceus plants are not as common as Monoecious plants.

MONOECIOUS PLANTS

These plants have both male & female reproductive systems on the same plant. Monoecious means “One Household”. Monoecious plants may have flowers that are perfect (both male & female parts in the same flower), or they may have separate male & female flowers that appear on the same plant.