Explore the outdoors and find a flower for this investigation. You will learn about the parts of a flower and why they are important. Share with us the flower you used and what you saw during your dissection!
Question
What are the parts of a flower?
Materials
- A flower (ask a parent before you pull one from outside!)
- Pencil and paper
What to Do
- Go outside and observe a flower. Before you pull it for the dissection, draw a picture of the flower.
- Using the guide below, identify the petals, stamen, anther, pistil, and ovary.
Does your flower look like the one below?
Are there more or less parts on your flower?
Dissection Guide
- Carefully remove the petals. How many are there? What patterns do you see? What color is your flower? The petals are there to attract insects – like bees and butterflies. When an insect lands in the center of the flower, it can get food for itself and it also picks up pollen.
- Inside you might see stamen. These long skinny parts of the flower have a tip on them called the anther. This is the male part of the flower. This part of the flower makes pollen, which can be transferred to this and other flowers. When pollen is transferred to the female part of the plant it is called pollination. Remove and count the stamen.
- Lastly, you will see the tall structure that remains in the center of the flower. This is the pistil. At the base of the pistil, you will find a rounder structure called the ovary. This is where the pollen is delivered to create seeds and more flowers!
Activity add-ons:
Research other parts of the flower you found and their purpose.
Find another flower and compare the number of petals and stamen. Why might one flower have more or less petals/stamen than another?
Learn more about plants in this interactive web activity: The Great Plant Escape (https://web.extension.illinois.edu/gpe/index.cfm)