Flowers

• Some plants produce two types of flowers, those with male reproductive parts and those with female parts, while others produce "perfect" flowers -- which have both. The petals of the flower form a ring or cup called the corolla. Flower petals are colored and scented to attract insects and birds so that they will visit the plant and carry the pollen from male flowers to female flowers. Flowers are elevated on stalks to make pollination easier.
  
  

Male Flower Parts

• Inside the corolla of male and perfect flowers is the stamen, the reproductive organ of male flowers that produces pollen. It consists of the filament, a tall stalk that holds up the organ that makes pollen, called the anther. The anther contains sacs filled with pollen, which is released on the outside of the stamen so that it can be picked up by insects or carried on the wind to the female flower.
  
  

Female Flower Parts

• Inside the corolla of a female and perfect flowers is the female reproductive organ, called the pistil. The pistil consists of the stigma, the style and the ovary. The stigma is the top of the flower's female reproductive organs, and it is covered in a sticky substance to collect pollen. The style is the stalk that pollen passes down to the ovary, which contains unfertilized seeds called ovules. After fertilization, the ovary becomes the fruit, containing seeds that will become a new plant.
  
  

Pollen

• Pollen is the male sex cells of the plant, containing half of the plant's DNA. These dustlike particles are made by the anther on the stamen. The same plant can produce both male and female flowers and pollinate itself in a process called self-pollination. Some plants produce only male or only female flowers, and pollen from one plant is transferred to another plant in a process called cross-pollination. Most plants are cross-pollinators, and pollen is transferred from flower to flower by wind, insects or birds.
  
  

Pollination

• The process of pollination begins when the anther produces pollen, which is carried from a male flower to a female flower on the legs of flying insects, by wind or on the beaks of birds. Grains of pollen land on the female flower's stigma, travel down the style and are deposited in the ovary. Once fertilization of the ovule occurs, the ovary swells and becomes a fruit. Seeds containing the complete genes for a new plant form within the fruit.