Blogpost #7: Anthers and Stigmas, Oh My! (Grace Slone)

There are many different parts in a flower that need to work together in order to produce a new flower. In a flowering plant, in order for it to be able to reproduce, there needs to be a sperm and an egg cell. In the case of a flower, the pollen grains contain sperm cells while the ovules inside of the ovary are the egg cells. The goal is for the sperm cell to reach the egg cell and this occurs during pollination. Through various events such as bees or butterflies drinking nectar from many flowers, to just the wind blowing pollen towards a flower of the same kind, pollination is the able to occur. Once grains of pollen reach the flower, they then grasp onto the stigma of the plant. Once on the stigma, the pollen grain sprouts a long tube into the ovary and into one of the ovules. After the ovule has been fertilized by the pollen, a new seed begins to sprout inside of the ovary.

This an image of the flower itself. As seen, the major parts of flower or that are most visible are the yellow petals and the sepals which are right below the petals. The petal and sepal's purpose is to make it appealing to various pollinators for the purpose of fertilization and the spreading of pollen but also for protection of the inner parts of the entire flower such as the ovary or the stigma. 

This is the flower under the microscope after the petals and sepals have been removed. As shown in the image above, the anthers and the stamen are shown. There is also pollen on the anthers and stigma of this specific flower. Visible in the image above, this flower, which came from a Brassica oleracea plant, contains both male and female anatomical parts. These gender specific parts are the male stamen and the female carpel and stigma. 

This is a close up picture of the female anatomy of the flower which is the carpel (the tube like structure) and the stigma (the rounder end at the tip of the carpel). The purpose of these parts is to have pollen grains stick onto and then form tubes into the ovary of the flower. 

This final image is an image of the ovules and broken ovary of the flower. The purpose of the ovary is to hold the eggs for safe keeping until a sperm cell is able to reach an egg cell and begin to fertilize. The ovules are the smaller green spheres while the ovary is located at the bottom of the carpel.