PRACTICAL Name:

36 The structure of flowers

You need:
■ mounted needle or long pin ■ white tile or paper
■ forceps ■ examples of flowers (ideally one
■ scalpel ‘insect pollinated’ and one ‘wind
■ hand lens pollinated’)

Method
1 Examine each flower. Count the number of sepals and petals, if
any are present. Remove these structures.
2 Examine the stamens (anther and filament). Remove them and
record the number.
3 Cut horizontally across the female part of the flower. Count and
record the number of carpels.
4 Collect one stamen from each of the flowers. Make a drawing of
each of them in this space. Add a scale to your drawings.

1 carpel 3 carpels
No. of No. of No. of No. of
sepals petals stamens carpels
Insect-pollinated
Wind-pollinated

Questions
a What is the most obvious feature of the insect-pollinated flower
that would be attractive to insects?
b Where, on the insect-pollinated flower, would you find the
nectary? What is the purpose of this structure?
c How is the wind-pollinated flower adapted to its function?

Extension
If you have access to a source of ultra-violet light, shine this onto a
petal from the insect-pollinated flower. What do you see? What is
the significance of this?

© OUP: this may be reproduced for class use solely for the purchaser’s institute