Flowers

A flower is the part of a plant that makes seeds. Most flowers have both male parts and female parts, arranged in rings: sepals on the outside, then petals, then the stamens, with the carpel in the middle.

Part	Job
Sepals	Green, leaf-like; protect the flower while it is a bud
Petals	Often large and brightly coloured, to attract insects
Stamen (male): anther + filament	The anther makes pollen, which carries the male sex cells; the filament holds it up
Carpel (female): stigma + style + ovary	The sticky stigma catches pollen; the style joins it to the ovary, which holds the ovules, each with a female sex cell (an egg cell)
Nectary	Deep in the flower; makes sugary nectar to reward visiting insects

After fertilisation, each ovule becomes a seed, and the ovary becomes the fruit around the seeds.

Stretch Flowers vary a lot in shape and number of parts, but most are built from the same kinds of part. Many wind-pollinated flowers have tiny petals or none at all, and a few plants, such as hazel, have separate male flowers (the catkins) and female flowers. A poppy ovary holds hundreds of ovules; a cherry makes just one seed.