A complete flower is a plant biology term that refers to a flower that is made up of four parts: sepals, petals, pistils, and stamens. If any of these four pieces, which are essential in the formation of a flower, is absent, the flower is referred to as an incomplete flower. A full bloom has both the pistil and the stamen, which are female and male reproductive components, and allows for pollination.
Only monoecious plants have entire flowers, not dioecious plants. A monoecious plant has blooms that include both pistil and stamen on the same plant, resulting in both complete and incomplete flowers. A dioecious plant, on the other hand, can have either a pistil or a stamen on the same plant, resulting in only partial flowers.
Types of flowers
There are two kinds of flowers. There are two types of flowers: complete flowers and incomplete flowers.
- Complete flower: A flower that contains all four parts percent, namely the calyx, corolla, androecium, and gynoecium, is known as a complete flower.
Complete flowers include thorn-apple (Datura), China-rose (Hibiscus), and others.
Flowers that are missing at least one of the four floral elements are referred to as incomplete flowers.
- An incomplete male flower has calyx, corolla, and androecium, whereas an incomplete female flower has gynoecium rather than androecium along with calyx and corolla.
What makes a flower complete?
‘By any other name, a rose would smell as sweet.’ Although Shakespeare most likely did not have biology in mind while he wrote this line, we can also refer to a rose as a complete flower in biology. Some flowers, such as roses, are considered complete, while others are considered incomplete based on their structures.
A flower must have four parts in order to be considered complete: sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils. Incomplete flowers are missing one or more of these components. Before we get into more specific definitions,
The green sepals on the outside of a rosebud can be seen in a cross section. The sepals encircle the rose’s crimson petals, and the yellow stamens can be found if you carefully draw back the petals. The stamens encircle the pistils of the rose at the middle. Moving from the outside to the inside, we have sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils. This is true for any fully formed flower. Let’s take a look at what each component performs for the bloom.
Structure of a flower
Flowers serve as reproductive structures for so many plants, and each component of a whole bloom contributes to the flower’s final goal.
The outermost layer contains sepals, which are the leaf-like, usually green structures at the base of the flower. They serve to protect the blossom as it develops. Consider it the armour that allows flowers to survive long enough to attain reproductive maturity.
Petals are the brightly coloured components of the flower that attract pollinators. Different petal hues might entice various animals and insects to serve as pollinators. Many butterfly species, for example, are attracted to flowers with red or yellow petals. Because they don’t carry out sexual reproduction, sepals and petals are frequently referred to as the flower’s sterile portions.
One or more stamens may be present in a complete flower. Stamens are a flower’s male reproductive parts. Each stamen resembles a long tube with a ball at one end. The tube is known as the filament, and the ball on top is known as the anther. The anther generates pollen grains, which contain the sperm of the flower. Pollinators may transfer pollen grains away from the anther to fertilise a flower if they come into contact with it.
A whole flower, like stamens, may have one or many pistils. Pistils are the flower’s female reproductive components. The stigma, style, and ovary are the three primary elements of a pistil, which is commonly bottle-shaped. The stigma is the sticky surface on top of the pistil.
The stigma is connected to the ovary by a short stalk called the style. You can conceive of it as the bottle’s neck. Pollen grains on the stigma produce pollen tubes that burrow through style to enter the ovary. The ovary is a hollow cavity that holds immature seeds known as ovules – think of it as the bottle’s body. When a pollen tube enters the ovary, it deposits sperm cells that fertilise an egg inside an ovule. The fertilised ovule grows into a seed, which may one day give rise to a new plant with more complete blooms.
Conclusion
A full bloom promotes an easy pollination process since it has both male and female reproductive elements. Wind and small insects are the most effective pollinators of a whole flower.
In angiosperms, a flower is made up of four tissues, all or parts of which are sepal, petal, stamen, and pistil. Flowers are classed as whole or incomplete based on whether all four floral parts are present or if any are missing. If all four floral organs are available in the same flower structure, the flower is said to be complete. The gumamela or China rose is a well-known example of a full flower (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis).