My Science School

Flowers open out from buds in spring or summer when it is warm and light. Sepals on the buds keep them warm and dry until it is time to open. Sepals are usually green and look like small leaves.

A seed may grow inside the carpel.

Below is a cross-section of a flower and its stem. It shows the parts of flower. A group of carpels is called a pistil. Seeds may eventually form from the egg inside each carpel. Not all flowers have both the male and female parts.

The petals are orange and the sepals are green.

Most flowers are made of four parts – sepals, petals, carpels and stamens. The sepals protect the flower bud. After the bud has opened, the sepals have done their job and may fall off. Petals are often brightly coloured. They surround and protect the carpel and stamens inside them. There is sugary nectar in the base of most flowers.

You can see the yellow pollen on the stamens.

The stamens are the male part of the flower. Stamens produce pollen. The carpel is the female part of the flower. In this photo, the carpel is in the middle of the stamens. Some flowers have only one carpel. But others have many.