Reproduction

The male reproductive structures are called the stamens. Each stamen consists of an anther, which produces pollen, and a filament, which supports the anther. The filament is the stalk that bears the anther in a stamen. The anther is the terminal part of a stamen consisting usually of two lobes each containing two sacs in which the pollen matures. The female reproductive structures are called carpels. The stigma at the top is often sticky and is where the pollen attaches. The style is the long tube that attaches the stigma to the ovary. Sperm from the pollen will travel down this tube to the ovules. The ovary is the ovule-bearing lower part of a pistil that ripens into a fruit. Sexual reproduction in plants occurs when the pollen from an anther is transferred to the stigma. Plants can fertilize themselves: called self-fertilization. Self-fertilization occurs when the pollen from an anther fertilizes the eggs on the same flower. Cross-fertilization occurs when the pollen is transferred to the stigma of an entirely different plant. When the ovules are fertilized, they will develop into seeds. The petals of the flower fall off leaving only the ovary behind, which will develop into a fruit. There are many different kinds of fruits, including apples and oranges and peaches. A fruit is any structure that encloses and protects a seed, so fruits are also "helicopters" and acorns, and bean pods. When you eat a fruit, you are actually eating the ovary of the flower. Petals are the colorful part of the flower that attracts insects and even other small animals. Sepals are leaf like structures that surround and protect the flower before it blooms. Pollen is the fine powder-like material consisting of pollen grains that is produced by the anthers of seed plants. The ovules, or eggs, are stored in the ovary until they are fertilized. Double fertilization is the process in which the two sperm nuclei of a pollen grain unite with nuclei of the embryo sac of an angiosperm plant.