Flower

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is

the reproductive structure found in plants that are floral
(plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also called
angiosperms). The biological function of a flower is to
effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism
for the union of sperm with eggs. Flowers may
facilitate outcrossing (fusion of sperm and eggs from
different individuals in a population) or allow selfing
(fusion of sperm and egg from the same flower). Some
flowers produce diaspores without fertilization
(parthenocarpy). Flowers contain sporangia and are the
site where gametophytes develop. Many flowers have
evolved to be attractive to animals, so as to cause them
to be vectors for the transfer of pollen. After
fertilization, the ovary of the flower develops into fruit
containing seeds.

In addition to facilitating the reproduction of flowering

plants, flowers have long been admired and used by
humans to bring beauty to their environment, and also
as objects of romance, ritual, religion, medicine and as
a source of food.

Contents A poster with flowers or clusters of flowers produced by

twelve species of flowering plants from different families

1 Morphology
1.1 Floral parts
1.1.1 Perianth
1.1.2 Reproductive
1.2 Structure
1.2.1 Inflorescence
1.2.2 Floral diagrams and floral
formulae
2 Development
2.1 Flowering transition
2.2 Organ development
3 Floral function
3.1 Flower specialization and
pollination
4 Pollination
4.1 Pollen
4.2 Attraction methods
4.3 Pollination mechanism
4.4 Flower-pollinator relationships
5 Fertilization and dispersal
6 Evolution
7 Color
8 Symbolism
9 Usage
10 See also
11 References
 12 Further reading
13 External links

Morphology
Floral parts

The essential parts of a flower can be considered in two

parts: the vegetative part, consisting of petals and
associated structures in the perianth, and the reproductive
or sexual parts. A stereotypical flower consists of four
kinds of structures attached to the tip of a short stalk. Each
of these kinds of parts is arranged in a whorl on the
receptacle. The four main whorls (starting from the base of
the flower or lowest node and working upwards) are as Main parts of a mature flower (Ranunculus
follows: glaberrimus)

Perianth

Collectively the calyx and corolla form the perianth (see

diagram).

Calyx: the outermost whorl consisting of units called

sepals; these are typically green and enclose the rest
of the flower in the bud stage, however, they can be
absent or prominent and petal-like in some species.
Corolla: the next whorl toward the apex, composed
of units called petals, which are typically thin, soft Diagram of flower parts
and colored to attract animals that help the process of
pollination.

Reproductive

Androecium (from Greek andros oikia: man's house): the next whorl (sometimes multiplied into several
whorls), consisting of units called stamens. Stamens consist of two parts: a stalk called a filament, topped
by an anther where pollen is produced by meiosis and eventually dispersed.
Gynoecium (from Greek gynaikos oikia: woman's house): the innermost whorl of a flower, consisting of
one or more units called carpels. The carpel or multiple fused carpels form a hollow structure called an
ovary, which produces ovules internally. Ovules are megasporangia and they in turn produce megaspores
by meiosis which develop into female gametophytes. These give rise to egg cells. The gynoecium of a
flower is also described using an alternative terminology wherein the structure one sees in the innermost
whorl (consisting of an ovary, style and stigma) is called a pistil. A pistil may consist of a single carpel or
a number of carpels fused together. The sticky 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. The relationship to the gynoecium on the receptacle is described as hypogynous (beneath a
superior ovary), perigynous (surrounding a superior ovary), or epigynous (above inferior ovary).

Structure

Although the arrangement described above is considered "typical", plant species show a wide variation in floral
structure.[1] These modifications have significance in the evolution of flowering plants and are used extensively
by botanists to establish relationships among plant species.
The four main parts of a flower are generally defined by
their positions on the receptacle and not by their function.
Many flowers lack some parts or parts may be modified
into other functions and/or look like what is typically
another part. In some families, like Ranunculaceae, the
petals are greatly reduced and in many species the sepals
are colorful and petal-like. Other flowers have modified
stamens that are petal-like; the double flowers of Peonies
and Roses are mostly petaloid stamens.[2] Flowers show
great variation and plant scientists describe this variation in
a systematic way to identify and distinguish species.

Specific terminology is used to describe flowers and their

parts. Many flower parts are fused together; fused parts
originating from the same whorl are connate, while fused
parts originating from different whorls are adnate; parts
that are not fused are free. When petals are fused into a
tube or ring that falls away as a single unit, they are
sympetalous (also called gamopetalous). Connate petals
may have distinctive regions: the cylindrical base is the
tube, the expanding region is the throat and the flaring outer
region is the limb. A sympetalous flower, with bilateral
symmetry with an upper and lower lip, is bilabiate.
Flowers with connate petals or sepals may have various
shaped corolla or calyx, including campanulate,
funnelform, tubular, urceolate, salverform or rotate. Reproductive parts of Easter Lily (Lilium
longiflorum). 1. Stigma, 2. Style, 3. Stamens, 4.
Referring to "fusion," as it is commonly done, appears Filament, 5. Petal
questionable because at least some of the processes
involved may be non-fusion processes. For example, the addition of intercalary growth at or below the base of
the primordia of floral appendages such as sepals, petals, stamens and carpels may lead to a common base that
is not the result of fusion.[3][4][5]

Many flowers have a symmetry. When the perianth is bisected

through the central axis from any point, symmetrical halves are
produced, forming a radial symmetry. These flowers are also
known to be actinomorphic or regular, e.g. rose or trillium. When
flowers are bisected and produce only one line that produces
symmetrical halves the flower is said to be irregular or
zygomorphic, e.g. snapdragon or most orchids.
Left: A normal zygomorphic Streptocarpus
Flowers may be directly attached to the plant at their base (sessile
flower. Right: An aberrant peloric
the supporting stalk or stem is highly reduced or absent). The
Streptocarpus flower. Both of these flowers
stem or stalk subtending a flower is called a peduncle. If a peduncle
appeared on the Streptocarpus hybrid
supports more than one flower, the stems connecting each flower to
'Anderson's Crows' Wings'.
the main axis are called pedicels. The apex of a flowering stem
forms a terminal swelling which is called the torus or receptacle.

Inflorescence

In those species that have more than one flower on an axis, the collective cluster of flowers is termed an
inflorescence. Some inflorescences are composed of many small flowers arranged in a formation that resembles
a single flower. The common example of this is most members of the very large composite (Asteraceae) group.
A single daisy or sunflower, for example, is not a flower but a
flower headan inflorescence composed of numerous flowers (or
florets). An inflorescence may include specialized stems and
modified leaves known as bracts.

Floral diagrams and floral formulae

A floral formula is a way to represent the structure of a flower

using specific letters, numbers and symbols, presenting substantial
information about the flower in a compact form. It can represent a
taxon, usually giving ranges of the numbers of different organs, or
The familiar calla lily is not a single flower.
particular species. Floral formulae have been developed in the early
It is actually an inflorescence of tiny
19th century and their use has declined since. Prenner et al. (2010)
flowers pressed together on a central stalk
devised an extension of the existing model to broaden the
that is surrounded by a large petal-like
descriptive capability of the formula.[6] The format of floral
bract.
formulae differs in different parts of the world, yet they convey the
same information.[7][8][9][10]

The structure of a flower can also be expressed by the means of floral diagrams. The use of schematic
diagrams can replace long descriptions or complicated drawings as a tool for understanding both floral structure
and evolution. Such diagrams may show important features of flowers, including the relative positions of the
various organs, including the presence of fusion and symmetry, as well as structural details.[7]

Development
A flower develops on a modified shoot or axis from a determinate apical meristem (determinate meaning the
axis grows to a set size). It has compressed internodes, bearing structures that in classical plant morphology are
interpreted as highly modified leaves.[11] Detailed developmental studies, however, have shown that stamens
are often initiated more or less like modified stems (caulomes) that in some cases may even resemble
branchlets.[5][12] Taking into account the whole diversity in the development of the androecium of flowering
plants, we find a continuum between modified leaves (phyllomes), modified stems (caulomes), and modified
branchlets (shoots).[13][14]

Flowering transition

The transition to flowering is one of the major phase changes that a plant makes during its life cycle. The
transition must take place at a time that is favorable for fertilization and the formation of seeds, hence ensuring
maximal reproductive success. To meet these needs a plant is able to interpret important endogenous and
environmental cues such as changes in levels of plant hormones and seasonable temperature and photoperiod
changes.[15] Many perennial and most biennial plants require vernalization to flower. The molecular
interpretation of these signals is through the transmission of a complex signal known as florigen, which
involves a variety of genes, including CONSTANS, FLOWERING LOCUS C and FLOWERING LOCUS T.
Florigen is produced in the leaves in reproductively favorable conditions and acts in buds and growing tips to
induce a number of different physiological and morphological changes.[16]

The first step of the transition is the transformation of the vegetative stem primordia into floral primordia. This
occurs as biochemical changes take place to change cellular differentiation of leaf, bud and stem tissues into
tissue that will grow into the reproductive organs. Growth of the central part of the stem tip stops or flattens out
and the sides develop protuberances in a whorled or spiral fashion around the outside of the stem end. These
protuberances develop into the sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels. Once this process begins, in most plants, it
cannot be reversed and the stems develop flowers, even if the initial start of the flower formation event was
dependent of some environmental cue.[17] Once the process begins, even if that cue is removed the stem will
continue to develop a flower.
Yvonne Aitken has shown that flowering transition depends on a number of factors, and that plants flowering
earliest under given conditions had the least dependence on climate whereas later-flowering varieties reacted
strongly to the climate setup.

Organ development

The molecular control of floral organ identity determination appears to be fairly

well understood in some species. In a simple model, three gene activities
interact in a combinatorial manner to determine the developmental identities of
the organ primordia within the floral meristem. These gene functions are called
A, B and C-gene functions. In the first floral whorl only A-genes are expressed,
leading to the formation of sepals. In the second whorl both A- and B-genes are
expressed, leading to the formation of petals. In the third whorl, B and C genes
interact to form stamens and in the center of the flower C-genes alone give rise
to carpels. The model is based upon studies of mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana
and snapdragon, Antirrhinum majus. For example, when there is a loss of B-
gene function, mutant flowers are produced with sepals in the first whorl as
usual, but also in the second whorl instead of the normal petal formation. In the
third whorl the lack of B function but presence of C-function mimics the fourth
whorl, leading to the formation of carpels also in the third whorl. The ABC model of flower
development
Most genes central in this model belong to the MADS-box genes and are
transcription factors that regulate the expression of the genes specific for each
floral organ.

Floral function
The principal purpose of a flower is the reproduction of the individual
and the species. All flowering plants are heterosporous, producing two
types of spores. Microspores are produced by meiosis inside anthers
while megaspores are produced inside ovules, inside an ovary. In fact,
anthers typically consist of four microsporangia and an ovule is an
integumented megasporangium. Both types of spores develop into
gametophytes inside sporangia. As with all heterosporous plants, the
gametophytes also develop inside the spores (are endosporic).

In the majority of species, individual flowers have both functional

carpels and stamens. Botanists describe these flowers as being perfect or
bisexual and the species as hermaphroditic. Some flowers lack one or
the other reproductive organ and called imperfect or unisexual. If unisex
flowers are found on the same individual plant but in different locations,
An example of a "perfect flower", this
the species is said to be monoecious. If each type of unisex flower is
Crateva religiosa flower has both
found only on separate individuals, the plant is dioecious.
stamens (outer ring) and a pistil
(center).
Flower specialization and pollination

Flowering plants usually face selective pressure to optimize the transfer of their pollen, and this is typically
reflected in the morphology of the flowers and the behaviour of the plants. Pollen may be transferred between
plants via a number of 'vectors'. Some plants make use of abiotic vectors namely wind (anemophily) or,
much less commonly, water (hydrophily). Others use biotic vectors including insects (entomophily), birds
(ornithophily), bats (chiropterophily) or other animals. Some plants make use of multiple vectors, but many are
highly specialised.
Cleistogamous flowers are self-pollinated, after which they may or may not open. Many Viola and some Salvia
species are known to have these types of flowers.

The flowers of plants that make use of biotic pollen vectors commonly have glands called nectaries that act as
an incentive for animals to visit the flower. Some flowers have patterns, called nectar guides, that show
pollinators where to look for nectar. Flowers also attract pollinators by scent and color. Still other flowers use
mimicry to attract pollinators. Some species of orchids, for example, produce flowers resembling female bees
in color, shape, and scent. Flowers are also specialized in shape and have an arrangement of the stamens that
ensures that pollen grains are transferred to the bodies of the pollinator when it lands in search of its attractant
(such as nectar, pollen, or a mate). In pursuing this attractant from many flowers of the same species, the
pollinator transfers pollen to the stigmasarranged with equally pointed precisionof all of the flowers it
visits.

Anemophilous flowers use the wind to move pollen from one flower to the next. Examples include grasses,
birch trees, ragweed and maples. They have no need to attract pollinators and therefore tend not to be "showy"
flowers. Male and female reproductive organs are generally found in separate flowers, the male flowers having
a number of long filaments terminating in exposed stamens, and the female flowers having long, feather-like
stigmas. Whereas the pollen of animal-pollinated flowers tends to be large-grained, sticky, and rich in protein
(another "reward" for pollinators), anemophilous flower pollen is usually small-grained, very light, and of little
nutritional value to animals.

Pollination
The primary purpose of a flower is reproduction. Since the flowers are
the reproductive organs of plant, they mediate the joining of the sperm,
contained within pollen, to the ovules contained in the ovary.
Pollination is the movement of pollen from the anthers to the stigma.
The joining of the sperm to the ovules is called fertilization. Normally
pollen is moved from one plant to another, but many plants are able to
self pollinate. The fertilized ovules produce seeds that are the next
generation. Sexual reproduction produces genetically unique offspring,
allowing for adaptation. Flowers have specific designs which
encourages the transfer of pollen from one plant to another of the same
species. Many plants are dependent upon external factors for
pollination, including: wind and animals, and especially insects. Even Grains of pollen sticking to this bee
large animals such as birds, bats, and pygmy possums can be employed. will be transferred to the next flower
The period of time during which this process can take place (the flower it visits
is fully expanded and functional) is called anthesis. The study of
pollination by insects is called anthecology.

Pollen

The types of pollen that most commonly cause allergic reactions are produced by the plain-looking plants
(trees, grasses, and weeds) that do not have showy flowers. These plants make small, light, dry pollen grains
that are custom-made for wind transport.

The type of allergens in the pollen is the main factor that determines whether the pollen is likely to cause hay
fever. For example, pine tree pollen is produced in large amounts by a common tree, which would make it a
good candidate for causing allergy. It is, however, a relatively rare cause of allergy because the types of
allergens in pine pollen appear to make it less allergenic.[18]

Among North American plants, weeds are the most prolific producers of allergenic pollen.[19] Ragweed is the
major culprit, but other important sources are sagebrush, redroot pigweed, lamb's quarters, Russian thistle
(tumbleweed), and English plantain.
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.

Scientists have collected samples of ragweed pollen 400 miles out at sea and 2 miles high in the air.[18] A
single ragweed plant can generate a million grains of pollen per day.[20]

It is common to hear people say they are allergic to colorful or scented flowers like roses. In fact, only florists,
gardeners, and others who have prolonged, close contact with flowers are likely to be sensitive to pollen from
these plants. Most people have little contact with the large, heavy, waxy pollen grains of such flowering plants
because this type of pollen is not carried by wind but by insects such as butterflies and bees.

Attraction methods

Plants cannot move from one location to another, thus many flowers have
evolved to attract animals to transfer pollen between individuals in dispersed
populations. Flowers that are insect-pollinated are called entomophilous;
literally "insect-loving" in Greek. They can be highly modified along with the
pollinating insects by co-evolution. Flowers commonly have glands called
nectaries on various parts that attract animals looking for nutritious nectar.
Birds and bees have color vision, enabling them to seek out "colorful" flowers.

Some flowers have patterns, called nectar guides, that show pollinators where to
look for nectar; they may be visible only under ultraviolet light, which is visible
to bees and some other insects. Flowers also attract pollinators by scent and
some of those scents are pleasant to our sense of smell. Not all flower scents are
A Bee orchid has evolved appealing to humans; a number of flowers are pollinated by insects that are
over many generations to attracted to rotten flesh and have flowers that smell like dead animals, often
better mimic a female bee to called Carrion flowers, including Rafflesia, the titan arum, and the North
attract male bees as American pawpaw (Asimina triloba). Flowers pollinated by night visitors,
pollinators. including bats and moths, are likely to concentrate on scent to attract pollinators
and most such flowers are white.

Other flowers use mimicry to attract pollinators. Some species of orchids, for example, produce flowers
resembling female bees in color, shape, and scent. Male bees move from one such flower to another in search
of a mate.

Pollination mechanism

The pollination mechanism employed by a plant depends on what method of pollination is utilized.

Most flowers can be divided between two broad groups of pollination methods:

Entomophilous: flowers attract and use insects, bats, birds or other animals to transfer pollen from one flower to
the next. Often they are specialized in shape and have an arrangement of the stamens that ensures that pollen
grains are transferred to the bodies of the pollinator when it lands in search of its attractant (such as nectar,
pollen, or a mate). In pursuing this attractant from many flowers of the same species, the pollinator transfers
pollen to the stigmasarranged with equally pointed precisionof all of the flowers it visits. Many flowers
rely on simple proximity between flower parts to ensure pollination. Others, such as the Sarracenia or lady-
slipper orchids, have elaborate designs to ensure pollination while preventing self-pollination.

Anemophilous: flowers use the wind to move pollen from one flower to the next, examples include the grasses,
Birch trees, Ragweed and Maples. They have no need to attract pollinators and therefore tend not to grow large
blossoms. Whereas the pollen of entomophilous flowers tends to be large-grained, sticky, and rich in 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.

Some flowers are self-pollinated and use flowers that never open or are
self-pollinated before the flowers open, these flowers are called
cleistogamous. Many Viola species and some Salvia have these types of
flowers.
Grass flower with vestigial perianth or
Flower-pollinator relationships lodicules

Many flowers have close relationships with one or a few specific

pollinating organisms. Many flowers, for example, attract only one specific species of insect, and therefore rely
on that insect for successful reproduction. This close relationship is often given as an example of coevolution,
as the flower and pollinator are thought to have developed together over a long period of time to match each
other's needs.

This close relationship compounds the negative effects of extinction. The extinction of either member in such a
relationship would mean almost certain extinction of the other member as well. Some endangered plant species
are so because of shrinking pollinator populations.

Fertilization and dispersal

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 many dandelions. Conversely, many species of plants have ways of preventing self-
fertilization. Unisexual male and female flowers on the same plant may not appear or mature 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.

Evolution
While land plants have existed for about 425
million years, the first ones reproduced by a simple Life timeline
adaptation of their aquatic counterparts: spores. In view discuss
the sea, plantsand some animalscan simply Earliest humans
0
scatter out genetic clones of themselves to float Quaternary P Flowers
h Mammals
away and grow elsewhere. This is how early plants Karoo
a Dinosaurs
n Land life
reproduced. But plants soon evolved methods of Andean e
protecting these copies to deal with drying out and -500 r Cambrian explosion
o Ediacara biota
other damage which is even more likely on land Cryogenian
z
o
than in the sea. The protection became the seed, i Multicellular
though it had not yet evolved the flower. Early c
-1000 life
seed-bearing plants include the ginkgo and
Earliest sexual
conifers. An early fossil of a flowering plant, reproduction
P
Archaefructus liaoningensis from China, is dated r
-1500
about 125 million years old.[21] Even earlier from o
t
China is the 125130 million years old e
r Eukaryotes
Archaefructus sinensis. Now, another plant (130 o
-2000 z
million-year-old Montsechia vidalii, discovered in o
Spain) takes the title of world's oldest flower from i
Huronian c
Archaefructus sinensis.[22]
Oxygen crisis
-2500 Atmospheric oxygen
 Oxygen crisis
Several groups -2500 Atmospheric oxygen
of extinct

gymnosperms, Pongola
particularly -3000 A
photosynthesis
seed ferns, r
c
have been h
e
proposed as a
-3500 n Earliest oxygen
the ancestors
of flowering
plants but Single-celled
Archaefructus liaoningensis, one LHB meteorites
there is no -4000 life
of the earliest known flowering H
plants continuous a
d Earliest life
fossil evidence e water
showing a Earliest water
-4500 n Earliest Earth
exactly how flowers evolved. The apparently Axis scale: millions of (4540)
years.
sudden appearance of relatively modern flowers in Orange labels: known ice ages.
the fossil record posed such a problem for the Also see: Human timeline and Nature timeline
theory of evolution that it was called an
"abominable mystery" by Charles Darwin. Recently discovered angiosperm fossils such as Archaefructus,
along with further discoveries of fossil gymnosperms, suggest how angiosperm characteristics may have been
acquired in a series of steps.

Recent DNA analysis (molecular systematics)[23][24] shows that Amborella trichopoda, found on the Pacific
island of New Caledonia, is the sister group to the rest of the flowering plants, and morphological studies[25]
suggest that it has features which may have been characteristic of the earliest flowering plants.

The general assumption is that the function of flowers, from the start, was to involve animals in the
reproduction process. Pollen can be scattered without bright colors and obvious shapes, which would therefore
be a liability, using the plant's resources, unless they provide some other benefit. One proposed reason for the
sudden, fully developed appearance of flowers is that they evolved in an isolated setting like an island, or chain
of islands, where the plants bearing them were able to develop a highly specialized relationship with some
specific animal (a wasp, for example), the way many island species develop today. This symbiotic relationship,
with a hypothetical wasp bearing pollen from one plant to another much the way fig wasps do today, could have
eventually resulted in both the plant(s) and their partners developing a high degree of specialization. Island
genetics is believed to be a common source of speciation, especially when it comes to radical adaptations which
seem to have required inferior transitional forms. Note that the wasp example is not incidental; bees, apparently
evolved specifically for symbiotic plant relationships, are descended from wasps.

Likewise, most fruit used in plant reproduction comes from the enlargement of parts of the flower. This fruit is
frequently a tool which depends upon animals wishing to eat it, and thus scattering the seeds it contains.

While many such symbiotic relationships remain too fragile to survive competition with mainland organisms,
flowers proved to be an unusually effective means of production, spreading (whatever their actual origin) to
become the dominant form of land plant life.

While there is only hard proof of such flowers existing about 130 million years ago, there is some
circumstantial evidence that they did exist up to 250 million years ago. A chemical used by plants to defend
their flowers, oleanane, has been detected in fossil plants that old, including gigantopterids,[26] which evolved
at that time and bear many of the traits of modern, flowering plants, though they are not known to be flowering
plants themselves, because only their stems and prickles have been found preserved in detail; one of the earliest
examples of petrification.

The similarity in leaf and stem structure can be very important, because flowers are genetically just an
adaptation of normal leaf and stem components on plants, a combination of genes normally responsible for
forming new shoots.[27] The most primitive flowers are thought to have had a variable number of flower parts,
often separate from (but in contact with) each other. The flowers would have tended to grow in a spiral pattern,
 to be bisexual (in plants, this means both male and female parts on the
same flower), and to be dominated by the ovary (female part). As flowers
grew more advanced, some variations developed parts fused together, with
a much more specific number and design, and with either specific sexes per
flower or plant, or at least "ovary inferior".

Flower evolution continues to the present day; modern flowers have been
so profoundly influenced by humans that many of them cannot be
pollinated in nature. Many modern, domesticated flowers used to be simple
Amborella trichopoda, the sister weeds, which only sprouted when the ground was disturbed. Some of them
group to the rest of the flowering tended to grow with human crops, and the prettiest did not get plucked
plants because of their beauty, developing a dependence upon and special
adaptation to human affection.[28]

Color
Many flowering plants reflect as much light as possible within the range
of visible wavelengths of the pollinator the plant intends to attract.
Flowers that reflect the full range of visible light are generally perceived
as white by a human observer. An important feature of white flowers is
that they reflect equally across the visible spectrum. While many
flowering plants use white to attract pollinators, the use of color is also
widespread (even within the same species). Color allows a flowering
plant to be more specific about the pollinator it seeks to attract. The
Spectrum of the flowers of rose
color model used by human color reproduction technology (CMYK)
species. A red rose absorbs about
relies on the modulation of pigments that divide the spectrum into broad
99.7% of light across a broad area
areas of absorption. Flowering plants by contrast are able to shift the
below the red wavelengths of the
transition point wavelength between absorption and reflection. If it is
spectrum, leading to an exceptionally
assumed that the visual systems of most pollinators view the visible
pure red. A yellow rose will reflect
spectrum as circular then it may be said that flowering plants produce
about 5% of blue light, producing an
color by absorbing the light in one region of the spectrum and reflecting
unsaturated yellow (a yellow with a
the light in the other region. With CMYK, color is produced as a
degree of white in it).
function of the amplitude of the broad regions of absorption. Flowering
plants by contrast produce color by modifying the frequency (or rather
wavelength) of the light reflected. Most flowers absorb light in the blue to yellow region of the spectrum and
reflect light from the green to red region of the spectrum. For many species of flowering plant, it is the
transition point that characterizes the color that they produce. Color may be modulated by shifting the transition
point between absorption and reflection and in this way a flowering plant may specify which pollinator it seeks
to attract. Some flowering plants also have a limited ability to modulate areas of absorption. This is typically
not as precise as control over wavelength. Humans observers will perceive this as degrees of saturation (the
amount of white in the color).

Symbolism
Many flowers have important symbolic meanings in Western culture.[29] The practice of assigning meanings to
flowers is known as floriography. Some of the more common examples include:

Red roses are given as a symbol of love, beauty, and passion.[30]

Poppies are a symbol of consolation in time of death. In the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia
and Canada, red poppies are worn to commemorate soldiers who have died in times of war.
Irises/Lily are used in burials as a symbol referring to "resurrection/life". It is also associated with stars
(sun) and its petals blooming/shining.
Daisies are a symbol of innocence.

Flowers within art are also representative of the female genitalia,[31] as

Flowers within art are also representative of the female genitalia,[31] as
seen in the works of artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Imogen
Cunningham, Veronica Ruiz de Velasco, and Judy Chicago, and in fact
in Asian and western classical art. Many cultures around the world have
a marked tendency to associate flowers with femininity.

The great variety of delicate and beautiful flowers has inspired the
works of numerous poets, especially from the 18th19th century
Romantic era. Famous examples include William Wordsworth's I
Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and William Blake's Ah! Sun-Flower.

Because of their varied and colorful appearance, flowers have long been
a favorite subject of visual artists as well. Some of the most celebrated Lilies are often used to denote life or
paintings from well-known painters are of flowers, such as Van Gogh's resurrection
sunflowers series or Monet's water lilies. Flowers are also dried, freeze
dried and pressed in order to create permanent, three-dimensional pieces
of flower art.

Their symbolism in dreams has also been discussed, with possible

interpretations including "blossoming potential".[32]

The Roman goddess of flowers, gardens, and the season of Spring is

Flora. The Greek goddess of spring, flowers and nature is Chloris.

In Hindu mythology, flowers have a significant status. Vishnu, one of

the three major gods in the Hindu system, is often depicted standing Flowers are common subjects of still
straight on a lotus flower.[33] Apart from the association with Vishnu, life paintings, such as this one by
the Hindu tradition also considers the lotus to have spiritual Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder
significance.[34] For example, it figures in the Hindu stories of
creation.[35]

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

For new births or christenings

As a corsage or boutonniere
worn at social functions or for
holidays
As tokens of love or esteem
For wedding flowers for the
Flower market Detroit's Eastern bridal party, and for decorations
Market for the hall
As brightening decorations A woman spreading flowers over a
within the home lingam in a temple in Varanasi
As a gift of remembrance for bon voyage parties, welcome-home
parties, and "thinking of you" gifts
 For funeral flowers and expressions of sympathy for the grieving
For worshiping goddesses. In Hindu culture adherents commonly bring flowers as a gift to temples

People therefore grow flowers around their homes, dedicate entire parts of their living space to flower gardens,
pick wildflowers, or buy flowers from florists who depend on an entire network of commercial growers and
shippers to support their trade.

Flowers provide less food than other major plants parts (seeds, fruits, roots, stems and leaves) but they provide
several important foods and spices. Flower vegetables include broccoli, cauliflower and artichoke. The most
expensive spice, saffron, consists of dried stigmas of a crocus. Other flower spices are cloves and capers. Hops
flowers are used to flavor beer. Marigold flowers are fed to chickens to give their egg yolks a golden yellow
color, which consumers find more desirable; dried and ground marigold flowers are also used as a spice and
colouring agent in Georgian cuisine. Flowers of the dandelion and elder are often made into wine. Bee pollen,
pollen collected from bees, is considered a health food by some people. Honey consists of bee-processed flower
nectar and is often named for the type of flower, e.g. orange blossom honey, clover honey and tupelo honey.

Hundreds of fresh flowers are edible but few are widely marketed as food. They are often used to add color and
flavor to salads. Squash flowers are dipped in breadcrumbs and fried. Edible flowers include nasturtium,
chrysanthemum, carnation, cattail, honeysuckle, chicory, cornflower, canna, and sunflower. Some edible
flowers are sometimes candied such as daisy, rose, and violet (one may also come across a candied pansy).

Flowers can also be made into herbal teas. Dried flowers such as chrysanthemum, rose, jasmine, camomile are
infused into tea both for their fragrance and medical properties. Sometimes, they are also mixed with tea leaves
for the added fragrance.

Flowers have been used since as far back as 50,000 years in funeral rituals. Many cultures do draw a
connection between flowers and life and death, and because of their seasonal return flowers also suggest
rebirth, which may explain why many people place flowers upon graves. In ancient times the Greeks would
place a crown of flowers on the head of the deceased as well as cover tombs with wreaths and flower petals.
Rich and powerful women in ancient Egypt would wear floral headdresses and necklaces upon their death as
representations of renewal and a joyful afterlife, and the Mexicans to this day use flowers prominently in their
Day of the Dead celebrations in the same way that their Aztec ancestors did.

Eight Flowers, a painting by artist Qian Xuan, 13th century, Palace Museum, Beijing.

See also
Flower bouquet
Floral formula
Garden
Horticulture and gardening
List of garden plants
 Plant evolutionary developmental biology
Plant reproductive morphology
Sowing

References
1. Sattler, R. (1973). Organogenesis of Flowers. A Photographic Text-Atlas. University of Toronto Press.
ISBN 0-8020-1864-5
2. Reynolds, Joan; Tampion, John (1983). Double flowers: a scientific study. London: [Published for the]
Polytechnic of Central London Press [by] Pembridge Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-86206-004-6.
3. Sattler, R. 1978. 'Fusion' and 'continuity' in floral morphology. Notes of the Royal Botanic Garden,
Edinb.36: 397405
4. Greyson, R.I. 1994. The Development of Flowers. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. Leins, P. and Erbar, C. 2010. Flower and Fruit. Stuttgart: Schweizerbart Science Publishers
6. Prenner, Gernard (February 2010). "Floral formulae updated for routine inclusion in formal taxonomic
descriptions" (https://www.academia.edu/1175371/Floral_formulae_updated_for_routine_inclusion_in_f
ormal_taxonomic_descriptions). Taxon. 59 (1): 241250.
7. de Craene, Louis P. Ronse (2010). Floral Diagrams (https://books.google.com/books/about/Floral_Diagr
ams.html?id=24p-LgWPA50C&redir_esc=y). Cambridge University Press. p. 459.
ISBN 9781139484558.
8. Stephen Downie; Ken Robertson. "Digital Flowers: Floral Formulas" (http://www.life.illinois.edu/help/di
gitalflowers/FloralFormulas/index.htm). University of Illinois. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
9. Sharma, O. P. (2009). Plant Taxonomy (https://books.google.com/books?id=Roi0lwSXFnUC) (2 ed.).
Tata McGraw-Hill Education. pp. 165166. ISBN 1259081370.
10. Plant Taxonomy: Floral Formulas. St. John's University, Collegeville, MN (http://employees.csbsju.edu/s
saupe/biol308/Lecture/floral_form.htm)
11. Eames, A. J. (1961) Morphology of the Angiosperms McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York.
12. Sattler, R. 1973. Organogensis of Flowers. A Photographic Text-Atlas. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press
13. Sattler, R. 1988. A dynamic multidimensional approach to floral development. In: Leins, P., Tucker, S. C.
and Endress, P. K. (eds.) Aspects of Floral Development. Berlin: J. Cramer/Borntraeger, pp. 16.
14. Sattler, R. and Jeune, B. 1992. Multivariate analysis confirms the continuum view of plant form. Annals
of Botany 69: 249262.
15. Ausn, I.; et al. (2005). "Environmental regulation of flowering". Int J Dev Biol. 49 (56): 689705.
PMID 16096975 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16096975). doi:10.1387/ijdb.052022ia (https://
doi.org/10.1387%2Fijdb.052022ia).
16. Turck, F.; Fornara, F.; Coupland, G. (2008). "Regulation and Identity of Florigen: FLOWERING LOCUS
T Moves Centre Stage". Annual Review of Plant Biology. 59: 573594. PMID 18444908 (https://www.nc
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46%2Fannurev.arplant.59.032607.092755).
17. Searle, I.; et al. (2006). "The transcription factor FLC confers a flowering response to vernalization by
repressing meristem competence and systemic signaling in Arabidopsis" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p
mc/articles/PMC1472290). Genes & Dev. 20 (7): 898912. PMC 1472290 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.go
v/pmc/articles/PMC1472290) . PMID 16600915 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16600915).
doi:10.1101/gad.373506 (https://doi.org/10.1101%2Fgad.373506).
18. [1] (https://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/allergicdiseases/understanding/pollenallergy/Pages/about.aspx)
19. http://www.accuweather.com/en/health-articles/allergies/pollen-allergy/25706
20. [2] (http://masslung.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/pollenallergies.pdf)
21. "Flowers Modern & Ancient" (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/flower/anatomy.html). Pbs.org. Retrieved
2010-08-30.
22. "Fossilised remains of worlds oldest flower discovered in Spain" (https://www.theguardian.com/science/
2015/aug/17/fossilised-remains-worlds-oldest-flower-discovered-cretaceous), The Guardian, Aug. 17,
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24. "Amborella not a "basal angiosperm"? Not so fast" (http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/91/6/997).
Amjbot.org. doi:10.3732/ajb.91.6.997 (https://doi.org/10.3732%2Fajb.91.6.997). Retrieved 2010-08-30.
 25. "South Pacific plant may be missing link in evolution of flowering plants" (http://www.eurekalert.org/pu
b_releases/2006-05/uoca-spp051506.php). Eurekalert.org. 2006-05-17. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
26. "Oily Fossils Provide Clues To The Evolution Of Flowers" (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/0
4/010403071438.htm). Sciencedaily.com. 2001-04-05. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
27. "Age-Old Question On Evolution Of Flowers Answered" (http://unisci.com/stories/20012/0615015.htm).
Unisci.com. 2001-06-15. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
28. "Human Affection Altered Evolution of Flowers" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080516094446/http://w
ww.livescience.com/othernews/050526_flower_power.html). Livescience.com. Archived from the
original (http://www.livescience.com/othernews/050526_flower_power.html) on 2008-05-16. Retrieved
2010-08-30.
29. Jenkins, Zack. "9 Thoughts People Really Think When Receiving Flowers" (https://www.thebouqs.com/b
log/9-thoughts-people-really-think-when-receiving-flowers-2/). The Bouqs Company. Retrieved
22 August 2014.
30. Audet, Marye. "oses and Their Meaning" (http://garden.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Roses_and_Their_Meanin
g). Retrieved 22 August 2014.
31. Frownfelter, Andrea. "Flower Symbolism as Female Sexual Metaphor" (http://commons.emich.edu/cgi/vi
ewcontent.cgi?article=1210&context=honors). Eastern Michigan University.
32. Dee, Nerys (1984). Your Dreams & What They Mean. Surrey, Great Britain: Guild Publishing. p. 142.
33. "Vishnu" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/deities/vishnu.shtml). Bbc.co.uk. 2009-08-
24. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
34. "God's Favorite Flower" (http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1999/7/1999-7-13.shtml). Hinduism
Today. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
35. "The Lotus" (http://www.webcitation.org/6HaIfNjWU?url=http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sunrise/
49-99-0/ge-mrook.htm). Theosociety.org. Archived from the original (http://www.theosociety.org/pasade
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Further reading
Buchmann, Stephen (2016). The Reason for Flowers: Their History, Culture, Biology, and How They
Change Our Lives. Scribner. ISBN 978-1476755533.
Esau, Katherine (1965) Plant Anatomy (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Greyson, R. I. (1994) The Development of Flowers. Oxford University Press.
Leins, P., Erbar, C. (2010) Flower and Fruit. Schweizerbart Science Publishers, Stuttgart.
Sattler, R. (1973) Organogenesis of Flowers. A Photographic Text-Atlas. University of Toronto Press.

External links
Quotations related to Flowers at Wikiquote

Native Plant Information Network

Israeli researchers bring scent back to our flowers [VIDEO]

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