flower part of plant

Dictionary

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flower

(Elizabeth Morales)

flow·er (flou'ə?r)
n.

• The reproductive structure of some seed-bearing plants, characteristically having either specialized male or female organs or both male and female organs, such as stamens and a pistil, enclosed in an outer envelope of petals and sepals.
• Such a structure having showy or colorful parts; a blossom.
• A plant that is cultivated or appreciated for its blossoms.
• The condition or a time of having developed flowers: The azaleas were in full flower.
• Something, such as an ornament or a figure of speech, that resembles a flower in shape, fineness, or attractiveness.
• The period of highest development; the peak. See synonyms at bloom1.
• The highest example or best representative: the flower of our generation.
• A natural development or outgrowth: “His attitude was simply a flower of his general good nature” (Henry James).
• flowers Chemistry. A fine powder produced by condensation or sublimation of a compound.

v.intr.

• To produce a flower or flowers; blossom.
• To develop naturally or fully; mature: His artistic talents flowered early.

To decorate with flowers or with a floral pattern.

[Middle English flour, from Old French flor, from Latin flōos, flōor-.]

flow'er·er n.
flow'er·less adj.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2004, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Thesaurus

flower

noun

• The showy reproductive structure of a plant: bloom1, blossom, floret. See better/worse.
• A condition or time of vigor and freshness: bloom1, blossom, efflorescence, florescence, flush, prime. See better/worse.
• The superlative or most preferable part of something: best, choice, cream, crème de la crème, elite, pick, prize1, top. Idioms: cream of the crop, flower of the flock, pick of the bunchcrop. See better/worse.
• People of the highest social level: aristocracy, blue blood, crème de la crème, elite, gentility, gentry, nobility, patriciate, quality, society, upper class, who's who. Informal upper crust. See over/under.

• To bear flowers: bloom1, blossom, blow3, burgeon, effloresce. See better/worse, rich/poor.
• To be in one's prime: flourish, shine. Idioms: cut a figure, make a splash. See thrive/fail/exist.

 

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Encyclopedia

flower, name for the specialized part of a plant containing the reproductive organs, applied to angiosperms only. A flower may be thought of as a modified, short, compact branch bearing lateral appendages. Like twigs, flowers develop from buds, and the basic floral parts (sepal, petal, stamen, and carpel) are in actual fact greatly modified leaves. A typical flower is a concentric arrangement of these parts attached at their base to the receptacle, the tip of the stem. Outermost is a whorl of leaflike green sepals (the calyx) encircling a whorl of usually showy, colored petals (the corolla). Within the corolla the stamens, bearing anther sacs full of pollen, surround the central carpels (ovary). Inside the ovary at the base of the pistil are the ovules, containing the female sex cells; after fertilization of the egg, the ovule becomes the seed and the ovary becomes the fruit. The ovary and stamens are termed essential flower parts, the petals and sepals accessory parts. The number and arrangement of the floral organs vary considerably among the many families and orders of plants and are used in the classification of plants; they also indicate the degree of evolution of the plant. In general, the higher a plant is on the evolutionary scale, the greater is the flower's complexity. The basic number of parts differs from class to class and from family to family; in monocotyledonous plants the parts generally occur in groups of three or in multiples of three, and in dicotyledons more often in groups of two, four, and five. Flowers may be staminate (lack carpels), carpellate, or both; staminate and carpellate flowers may appear on the same plant, on separate plants, or in the same inflorescence. One type of inflorescence, characteristic of the parsley family, is the umbel, in which the tiny florets are borne on separate stalks radiating out from the stem tip. Sometimes the parts serve unusual purposes: the true flowers of the dogwood and the poinsettia are inconspicuous, and the showy “petals” are really modified leaves called bracts. In the jack-in-the-pulpit the florets are clustered on a spike canopied by a large bract, the spathe; the hood of the lady's-slipper, on the other hand, is a modified sterile stamen. Grass inflorescences are tiny spikelets sheathed by protective scales called glumes (the chaff or grain). Flowers have been cultivated and bred for their beauty and their perfume from earliest times and have accumulated a vast and intricate treasury of symbolic associations derived from legend and folklore. Individual flowers have been celebrated in heraldry (rose), in religion (lotus), and in politics (violet) and have become emblems for many countries, including Switzerland (edelweiss), France (fleur-de-lis), Scotland (thistle), Holland (tulip), and the United States (see state flowers).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/

Science

flower

The part of a plant that produces the seed. It usually contains petals, a pistil, and pollen-bearing stamens.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.

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Medical

flow·ers (flou'ə?rz)
pl.n.

A fine powder produced by condensation or sublimation of a compound.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

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Food Glossary

Flowers

edible Flowers that are used as a garnish or as an integral part of a dish, such as a salad. Not all flowers are edible. Those that are must usually be purchased from specialty produce markets or supermarkets that carry gourmet produce. They can be stored, tightly wrapped, in the refrigerator up to a week. Flowers that have been sprayed with pesticides (such as those found at florists') should never be eaten. Some of the more popular edible flowers are: the peppery-flavored nasturtiums; chive blossoms, which taste like a mild, sweet onion; pansies and violets, both with a flavor reminiscent of grapes; and perfumy, sweet roses. Other edible flowers include: almond, apple, borage, chamomile, lavender, lemon, lovage, mimosa, orange, peach, plum and squash blossoms, chrysanthemums, daisies, geraniums, jasmine, geraniums, marigolds, and violets. Edible flowers may be used culinarily in a variety of ways. They make colorful, striking garnishes for drinks as well as food-for everything from salads to soups to desserts. Some of the larger flowers such as squash blossoms can be stuffed and deep-fried.

© 2002 HungryMonster.com™. All Rights Reserved.

Directory > Food & Nutrition > Food Glossary > flower

WordNet

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun flower has 3 meanings:

Meaning #1: a plant cultivated for its blooms or blossoms

Meaning #2: reproductive organ of angiosperm plants especially one having showy or colorful parts
Synonyms: bloom, blossom

Meaning #3: the period of greatest prosperity or productivity
Synonyms: prime, peak, heyday, bloom, blossom, efflorescence, flush

The verb flower has one meaning:

Meaning #1: produce or yield flowers
Synonyms: bloom, blossom

WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

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flower

Wildflowers

A flower is the reproductive organ of those plants classified as angiosperms (flowering plants; Division Magnoliophyta). The function of a flower is to produce seeds through sexual reproduction. For the higher plants, seeds are the next generation, and serve as the primary means by which individuals of a species are dispersed across the landscape. After fertilization, a flower develops into a fruit containing the seed(s).

Flower anatomy

A flower is regarded a modified stem (Eames, 1961) with shortened internodes and bearing, at its nodes, structures that may be highly modified leaves. In essence, a flower structure forms on a modified shoot or axis with an apical meristem that does not grow continuously (growth is determinate). The stem is called a pedicel, the end of which is the torus or receptacle. The parts of a flower are arranged in whorls on the torus. The four main parts or whorls (starting from the base of the flower or lowest node and working upwards) are as follows:

Poppy

• · calyx – the outer whorl of sepals; typically these are green, but are petal-like in some species.
• · corolla – the whorl of petals, which are usually thin, soft, and colored to attract insects that help the process of pollination.
• · androecium (from Greek andros oikia: man's house) – one or two whorls of stamens, each a filament topped by an anther where pollen is produced. Pollen contains the male gametes.
• · gynoecium (from Greek gynaikos oikia: woman's house) – consisting of a pistil, with one or more carpels, which are the female reproductive organs and contain an ovary with ovules (female gametes). The sticky tip of tip of the pistil, the stigma, is the receptor of pollen. The supportive stalk, the style becomes the pathway for pollen tubes to grow from pollen grains adhering to the stigma, to the ovules, carring the reproductive material.

In the majority of species, individual flowers have both pistils and stamens as described above. These flowers are described by botanists as being perfect, bisexual, or hermaphrodite. However, in some species of plants the flowers are imperfect or unisexual: having only either male (stamens) or female (pistil) parts. In the latter case, if an individual plant is either male or female the species is regarded as dioecious. However, where unisexual male and female flowers appear on the same plant, the species is considered monoecious.

Some flowers with both stamens and a pistil are capable of self-fertilization, which does increase the chance of producing seeds but limits genetic variation. The extreme case of self-fertilization occurs in flowers that always self-fertilize, such as the common dandelion. Conversely, many species of plants have ways of preventing self-fertilization. Unisexual male and female flowers on the same plant may not appear at the same time, or pollen from the same plant may be incapable of fertilizing its ovules. The latter flower types, which have chemical barriers to their own pollen, are referred to as self-sterile or self-incompatible. (See also: Plant sexuality)

Close-up of a Day lily flower showing six stamens and the stigma and style of a pistil

Additional discussions on floral modifications from the basic plan are presented in the articles on each of the basic parts of the flower. In those species that have more than one flower on an axis, the collection of flowers is termed an inflorescence. In this sense, care must be exercised in considering what is a flower. In botanical terminology, a single daisy or sunflower for example, is not a flower but a flower head—an inflorescence comprised of numerous small flowers (sometimes called florets). Each small flower may be anatomically as described above.

Floral formula

A floral formula is a way to represent the structure of a flower using specific letters, numbers, and symbols. Typically, a general formula will be used to represent the flower structure of a plant family rather than a particular species. The following representations are used:

Ca = calyx (sepal whorl; e.g. Ca⁵ = 5 sepals)
Co = corolla (petal whorl; e.g., Co^3(x) = petals some multiple of three )
Z = add if zygomorphic (e.g., CoZ⁶ = zygomorphic with 6 petals)
A = androecium (whorl of stamens; e.g., A^∞8 = many stamens)
G = gynoecium (carpel or carpels; e.g., G¹ = monocarpous)

x - to represent a "variable number"
∞8 - to represent "many"

A floral formula would appear something like this:

Ca⁵Co⁵A^10-∞8G¹

Several other symbols are used that will have to await drawings to illustrate here (see [1] (http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/courses/systematics/key.html)).

Flower function

Grains of pollen on stigma of a lily

The function of a flower is to mediate the union of male and female gametes. The process is termed pollination. Many flowers are dependent upon the wind to move pollen between flowers of the same species. Others rely on animals (especially insects) to accomplish this feat. The period of time during which this process can take place (the flower is fully expanded and functional) is called anthesis.

Many flowers in nature have evolved to attract animals to pollinate the flower, the movements of the pollinating agent contributing to the opportunity for genetic recombinations within a dispersed plant population. Flowers that are insect pollinated are called entomophilous (literally "insect loving"). Flowers commonly have nectaries on their various parts that attract these animals. Bees and birds are common pollinators: both have color vision, thus selecting for "colorful" flowers. Some flowers have patterns, called nectar guides, that are evident in the ultraviolet range, visible to bees but not to humans. Flowers also attract pollinators by scent. In any case, pollinators are attracted to the plant, perhaps in search of nectar, which they eat. The arrangement of the stamens insures that pollen grains are transferred to the bodies of the pollinator. In gathering nectar from many flowers of the same species, the pollinators transfer pollen between all of the flowers it visits.

Flower scent is not always pleasant to our nose. Some plants, such as Rafflesia, the titan arum, and the North American pawpaw (Asimina triloba) are pollinated by flies, so produce a scent imitating rotting meat.

Other flowers are pollinated by the wind, and the flowers of these species (for example, grasses) have no need to attract pollinators and therefore tend not to be "showy". Wind pollinated flowers are referred to as anemophilous. Whereas the pollen of entomophilous flowers tends to be large grained, sticky, and contain significant protein (another "reward" for pollinators), Anemophilous flower pollen is usually small grained, very light, and of little nutritional value to insects, though it may still be gathered, in times of dearth. Honeybees and bumblebees actively gather anemophilous corn (maize) pollen, though it is of little value to them.

There is much confusion about the role of flowers in allergies. For example the showy and entomophilous goldenrod (Solidago) is frequently blamed for respiratory allergies, of which it is innocent, since its pollen cannot be airborne. Instead the allergen is usually the pollen of the contemporary bloom of anemophilous ragweed (Ambrosia) which can drift for many kilometers.

Flowers in gardening and horticulture

Main and related articles at: Gardening, Horticulture, List of flowers, and Flower album

Sunflower

Flowers in the arts

The great variety of delicate and beautiful flowers has inspired the works of many poets.

Ah, Sun-flower weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller's journey is done:

Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.

• – William Blake, Ah! Sun-Flower

Flowers in everyday life

In modern times, people have sought ways to cultivate, buy, wear, or just be around flowers and blooming plants, partly because of their agreeable smell. Around the world, florists sell flowers for a wide range of events and functions that, cumulatively, encompass one's lifetime:

• · For new births or christenings
• · As corsages to be worn at social functions or for holidays
• · For wedding flowers for the bridal party, and decorations for the hall
• · As brightening decorations within the home
• · As a gift of remembrance for bon voyage parties, welcome home parties, and "thinking of you" gifts
• · For funeral flowers and flowers for the grieving

Flowers as symbols

Many flowers have important symbolic meanings in Western culture. Some of the more common examples include:

• · Red roses are given as a symbol of love and passion.
• · Poppies are a symbol of consolation in time of death. Red poppies are worn to commemorate soldiers who have died in times of war.
• · Irises are a symbol of death.
• · Daisies are a symbol of innocence.

References and external links

• · Eames, A. J. 1961. Morphology of the Angiosperms. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York.
• · Esau, K. 1965. Plant Anatomy, 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons. 767 pp.
• · Flower Anatomy (http://la.essortment.com/floweranatomy_raxw.htm)
• · The Flowers (http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/ecotree/flowers.htm)
• · William Blake: Ah Sun-Flower (http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem160.html)
• · Flower Encyclopedia (http://www.lovetoknow.com/Flowers/flowers.htm)
• · Flowers (http://develop.consumerium.org/wiki/index.php/Flowers) at the Development Wiki of Consumerium Project
• · Flower Council of Holland (http://www.flowercouncil.org).

A flower in a cryptic crossword could be pronounced flo-er and refer to a stream or river.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Flower".

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Translations

Translations for: Flower

Nederlands (Dutch)
bloem, het beste, poeder, schuim van vergisting, bloemrijk taalgebruik, bloei, bloem-, bloemen-, bloeien, doen bloeien, met bloemen versieren, ontwikkelen

Français (French)
fleur, floraison, fleurir, s'épanouir, à fleurs, fleuri

Deutsch (German)
n. - Blume, Blüte
v. - blühen

Ε?λ?λ?η?ν?ι?κ?ή? (Greek)
n. ά?ν?θ?ο?ς?, λ?ο?υ?λ?ο?ύ?δdι?, ά?ν?θ?ι?σsη? v. αaν?θ?ώ?, αaν?θ?ί?ζ?ω?, λ?ο?υ?λ?ο?υ?δdι?ά?ζ?ω?, λ?ο?υ?λ?ο?υ?δdί?ζ?ω? adj. τtω?ν? λ?ο?υ?λ?ο?υ?δdι?ώ?ν?

Italiano (Italian)
fiorire, crescere, fiore, floreale

Português (Portuguese)
n. - flor (f)
v. - florescer

Р?у?с?с?к?и?й? (Russian)
ц?в?е?с?т?и?, ц?в?е?т?о?к?, к?р?а?с?а?, р?а?с?ц?в?е?т?

Español (Spanish)
n. - flor, floración, florecimiento
v. intr. - florecer, estar en cierne, estar en flor
v. tr. - florear, decorar con flores

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - blomma, blomning, aromen (bildl.), (retorisk) blomma
v. - blomma, blomstra (bildl.), pryda med blommor, driva i blom
adj. - blom-, blomster-

中?国?琣? (Simplified Chinese)
n. - 絏?, 盛?时?, 精?华?
v. intr. - 开?絏?, 成?熟?, 旺?盛?
v. tr. - 用?絏?眻?暐?, 使?开?絏?
 

中?國?疏? (Traditional Chinese)
n. - 絏?, 盛?時?, 精?簑?
v. intr. - 橵?絏?, 成?熟?, 旺?盛?
v. tr. - 用?絏?眣?朂?, 使?橵?絏?
 

日?本?畢? (Japanese)
n. - 絏?, 粷?絏?, 橵?絏?, 満?橵?, 最?も?優?れ?た?漘?分?, 最?盛?期?, 梮?春?
v. - 絏?が?咲?く?, 絏?橵?く?, 栄?え?る?
 

ا?ل?ع?ر?ب?ي?ه? (Arabic)
‏?(ا?ل?ا?س?م?) و?ر?د?ة? (ف?ع?ل?) ي?ز?ه?ر? , ي?ن?و?ر? (ص?ف?ه?)‏?

ע?ב?ר?י?ת?‬? (Hebrew)
n. - ‮?פ?ר?ח?, צ?מ?ח? ה?מ?ט?ו?פ?ח? ב?ש?ל? פ?ר?ח?י?ו?, פ?א?ר?, מ?י?ט?ב?‬?
v. intr. - ‮?פ?ר?ח?‬?
v. tr. - ‮?ג?ר?ם? א?ו? א?י?פ?ש?ר? ל?צ?מ?ח? ל?פ?ר?ו?ח?, פ?ר?ח?, ק?י?ש?ט? ב?פ?ר?ח?י?ם?, צ?מ?ח? ה?מ?ט?ו?פ?ח? ב?ש?ל? פ?ר?ח?י?ו?, פ?א?ר?, מ?י?ט?ב?‬?
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