Male & Female Parts of the Sunflower Plant

Male Parts

• The male part of the sunflower, housed in the androceium, is called the microsporophyllis or stamen. The stalk of the stamen is called the filament, the tip is the anther and the two lobes of the anther are joined by plant tissue called connective. Each lobe contains two pollen sacs filled with the pollen grains that will eventually make contact with a female plant part to pollinate the plant and grow a seed.

Female Parts

• The female parts of the sunflower are found in the carpel or megasporophylls. Here we find the pistil consisting of a stigma at the top and a style or tubular stalk leading down to a rounded capsule called the ovary. Within the ovary are rudimentary seeds called ovules each of which encloses an embryo sac.

Pollination

• Pollination occurs when pollen grains are carried by wind or insect activity from the anther at the tip of the male filament to the stigma at the tip of the female pistil. The pollen migrates through the style to reach the ovule. The embryonic sac within the ovule is penetrated by the pollen and male and female characteristics combine to create the beginnings of a sunflower seed.