Rocket sketches a flower for his invention notebook. "Petals and a stem. Done!" he says.
Raven holds a picture of a flower close. "What do you notice in the middle? There are tiny stalks."
Nova hovers over the sketch. "A flower is a seed factory," she says. "Each part has a job. Look again."
Rocket picks up his pencil. "Okay, round two!"
Sepals are small, green, leaflike parts at the base of a flower.
They protect the flower while it is a bud.
Petals are usually the brightly colored parts of a flower.
The stamen is the male part. It makes pollen.
A stamen has an anther on top of a thin stalk called a filament.
The anther holds the pollen. The filament holds the anther up.
The pistil is the female part.
The pistil has three parts. The stigma is on top.
The style is in the middle. The ovary is at the bottom.
Inside the ovary are tiny ovules.
| Part | Male or female? | Job |
|---|---|---|
| anther | male (stamen) | holds pollen |
| filament | male (stamen) | holds the anther up |
| stigma | female (pistil) | top of the pistil, where pollen lands |
| style | female (pistil) | connects the stigma to the ovary |
| ovary | female (pistil) | holds the ovules |
Fabulous flower labeling! Tomorrow we find out how pollen turns a flower into seeds.