Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My! assignment 7-Charlie

Fertilization of flowering plants begins with pollinators. Bees,  birds, and other animals that may brush up against plants transfer pollen from one flower to another. When a pollinator touches a flower, sticky pollen found on the anther grabs on  to the creature. Next time that animal touches a flower, the pollen is moved onto the sticky stigma. Now that the flower has been pollinated it goes onto germination. Each particle of pollen extends a pollen tube down the style, towards the ovary. In the final step of fertilization, the sperm found in pollen travels down the pollen tube and joins with an ovule, forming a zygote.

This is a flower from a brassica oleracea before the dissection.  The appearance of the  petals on this flower will be essential to start the reproductive process. The petals allow the flower to be pollinated which allows the female gametes to be fertilized.

This is the anthers surrounding the stigma under the microscope at 40x magnification. When both in the same flower the stigma, the female reproductive body, and the stamen, the male reproductive body, make up a perfect flower. However, in some species of plants, each plant can be entirely female or male.

art of the flower called the stamen. The stamen is made up of 2 parts. First, the filament is a thin, clear spire that sprouts out from the foundation of the flower. At the top of the filament is the anther. The anther is where all the plant's sperm cells are located, which it creates and lets go.

Here is the female reproductive system of the flower, the carpel. The female reproductive system also includes two parts. First, is the style, which is below the other component, the stigma. The stigma is sticky on top and brings in pollen through various types of pollination.

This picture is of the ovary and the ovaries. The ovary holds the ovaries also known as the female gametes of the flower.  The ovules will be fertilized when pollen that has traveled from the stigma, through the style, and then finally into the ovary.