Abbie Weimer Blog Post #7

Angiosperms are plants that have flowers and produce seeds. Angiosperms are found everywhere, and our Brassica Oleracea is an example of one! This species is just one of 300,000 species that falls under this category. Angiosperms are unique because of the way they reproduce. There are both male and female parts, the male part is called the stamen, and the female part is called the carpel/pistil. The stamen is made up of the anthers (the part that creates pollen) and the filament (the part that holds up the anther). The carpel/pistil is made up of the stigma, style, and ovary. The stigma is the sticky part on top if the long tube called the style, which leads to the ovary. The ovary is where the ovules or female egg cells are held. Other important parts of flowers are petals, even though they are not sexual. Petals help attract pollinators, such as bees, birds, and butterflies, so pollen can be spread from plant to plant. This aids the process of fertilization. In fact, without pollination, plants would not be able to reproduce. Pollinators transport pollen, or male reproductive cells to other flowers. The pollen then lands on the stigma, and a tube is formed going down the style. The male reproductive cells travel down this tube to the ovary in order to join with an ovule. This creates a fertilized ovule, which then becomes a seed. The ovary becomes the fruit.
This is an image of a flower from our broccoli plant. As you can, most of the reproductive parts are visible, even without magnification. You can easily see the anthers, stigma, and the style. The petals are also visible, which help attract pollinators as well as protect the reproductive parts. 
This is our Brassica oleracea under the microscope. Along with the bright yellow petals, you can clearly see the 6 anthers that are part of the stamen. The stigma and style, which are part of the pistil, are also visible. 
This image shows 6 stamen and a single pistil, but we will only focus on the stamen for now. The stamen is the male reproductive anatomy of angiosperms. It is fairly simple and only has two parts: the filament and the anther. The filament is a slender stalk that supports the anther. The anther is the more important male part. This oval-shaped structure on the end of the filament is where the male gametophyte, known as pollen, is produced.
The photo shows part of the pistil, or female reproductive anatomy, of our broccoli flower. The pistil consists of three parts: stigma, style, and ovary. The ovary is at the base and supports a long, tube-like style. At the end of the style is the stigma, a sticky surface for pollen to land on. This image focuses only on the stigma and style. As the pollen grain germinates on the stigma, it creates a pollen tube through the entire length of the style. The pollen tube grows out of the pollen grain and creates a tunnel from the stigma to the ovary. 
Here you can see the flower with nearly all of its parts stripped away. The stigma and style are still present, but the main focus of the image is on the ovary. The ovary is the larger, base portion of the pistil. The ovary contains many ovules (eggs) which develop into seeds once they are fertilized. With the ovary sliced open, you can see some of the ovules inside, but there is also a more clear one located slightly to the left of the pistil. 









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