Parts of the Rose Flower

Male Parts

• In all flowers, the male parts produce pollen grains, which in turn become male reproductive cells. According to the Texas A&M University Rose Breeding and Genetics Program, horticulturalists call the entirety of the male parts of any flower the stamen. Individual parts of the stamen are the anthers, which produce pollen, and the filaments, the stems that support the anthers.

Female Parts

• The female parts of a flower house the eggs and conduct pollen grains to those eggs, so they can be fertilized and grow into seeds. The entirety of the female parts of a flower is called the pistel, the most obvious portion of which is the style, a tall, hollow stem that grows up from the base of the flower. At the top of the style is the stigma, where such pollinators as birds and flying insects deposit pollen grains gathered from other plants. The grains germinate, then travel down the style to the ovary, which contains ovules that hold egg cells.

Asexual Parts

• The sepals are the green leaves that cover the blossoms before they open. The petals, which are colorful and fragrant, attract pollinators to the flower.

Differences Between Roses and Other Flowers

• Unlike many flowers, roses have multiple ovaries instead of just one, so each rose can produce a lot of seeds. Each ovary has its own style. All the styles grow up past the stamens, and each style has its own stigma.

  Furthermore, in roses, the ovaries grow on the sides of the hypanthium, a ringlike or tubular structure that produces the sepals and the stamens.

Breeding Roses

• Rose breeders use their knowledge of the parts of rose blossoms to help them produce new varieties of roses. They collect pollen from one type of rose, pollinate a different type of rose with it, and then let the pollinated ovary grow into a rose hip. Then they extract the seeds from the rose hips, let them dry, plant them, and wait to see the results of their experiments.