What are the names and functions of different flower parts?
Tropical rainforest flowers are produced by plant species in the huge division Anthophyta. These tropical rainforest flowers house their sexual reproductive organs. Flowers have evolved to release and accept pollen. They may use wind or animal to carry the pollen from their flower to another If they manage to get pollinated, the seed will begin to grow. Most of the flowering plants develop a container around the seed called the fruit. This provides another name for the flowering plants, the ‘angiosperms’. The flower is a sexual organ (remember that next you shove your nose into one and sniff it!). The diversity of the tropical rainforest flowers is reflected in their diverse combinations of sexual arrangements. Individual flowers can have both female and male ‘bits’, or be of just one sex. When the latter, and the sexes are in different individual flowers, those flowers can be on the same tree at the same time, or on the same tree at different times, or on different individual plants. The flower itself is made up many different parts with many different names. The parts may vary considerably in shape and look, and it can be confusing recognizing the different parts of a flower. However, these variations in shape and number of features has traditionally been the main way to identify species, and to classify and determine species relationships. The largest, best known, most obvious and commonly recognized part of the flower is usually the collection of features and structures that make up the ‘perianth’. This consists of the lowest layer called the ‘calyx’ (which is made up of the sepals), and the next layer up, the ‘corolla’ (which is made up of the petals). These are non-sexual parts, and are mostly used as visual aids to attract pollinators. The numbers and look of the sepals vary, but they are mostly just greenish. The petals of a flower are usually more colourful, and they vary from thin and pen shaped, to elaborate and luscious (as in the orchids).
The male parts of the flower are known as the ‘androecium’ and made up of the usually pencil-shaped stamens (these are normally long and stick out of the flower, so it is easy to remember that they are the boy bits). There are frequently many stamens, and they located just inside the petals. The stamen itself is made up of the stick-like ‘filament’ and the ‘anthers’ at the end. The anthers contain the pollen grains. When the pollen mature, the anther will split and be ready to release the pollen. Pollen may be light and wind dispersed, or it may be collected by an animal. The pollen grains produce two male sperm cells (remember that when you next get pollen on your face or up your nose). 
The female part of the plant is called the ‘gynoecium’ (this means ‘female house’) and is made up of the usually squatter, slightly pear shaped carpel (think of the traditional Venus female shape). This is usually located in the centre of the flower. The ovary is inside this structure, the style is the part sticking up, and the stigma is the end. In the tropical rainforest flower of Thespesia (pictured), the carpel is the main central structure, with many reduced yellow stamens hanging off it.
There are many variations with all the parts in tropical rainforest plants. For example, the stamens may be in huge numbers and be colourful and large. These effectively act like colourful petals to attract animals for pollination, as in many species in the Myrtaceae and Barringtonia (pictured).
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