Dearies,
I consider my grasp of most things botanical quite firm. I’m clear on xylems and apical meristems and all that jazz. One very important fact has eluded me though. That fact: the relationship between flowers and fruits. Do flowers turn into fruits? How so? And, since I’m not all that green, (sorry), feel free to jargon me ears off. And why not explain it with an example, say, cherries, since I’m looking at them right now?
If you do a good job, I will erase the earlier pun from your memory. Perhaps I should just do it now. Ah well. Onwards.
All fruits come from flowers but not all flowers become fruits.
Does that help?
It does. I’m wondering how though.
As in, I understand that plants grow from their apical meristems, at all their tip-tops (or very bottoms, etc.) but how exactly does a cherry blossom magically become a cherry.
Oh Dear. I feel a sweet tenderness, in explaining the basic birds-N-bees of flora to someone…
You see, Birdmonster, Onwards indeed,
Flowers are the reproductive parts of plants, that is, they have a stigma , the female part, and stamens, carrying the male pollen, or seed. Some flowers have both, some are only male or female. There are all kinds of interesting permutations on that arrangement. But, basically, the.pollen gets into the pistil, by wind, insects, birds, etc, again, many interesting variations, and then down into the ovary. If you ever have a chance to look at this under a microscope, do, because it will just Freak you out. The pollen grows a long tube and carries itself down to the Ovary…it’s really amazing/scary to see.
Then, a new potential plant is made, in terms of a seed, or, fruit, of all that hanky panky, and onward we go. Technically, “fruit” means a ripened ovary, but it all is the result of flowers, basically, plants flaunting their availability on the market.
A cherry becomes a cherry because the flower advertised it’s worth to the birds-n-bees, then pokin’ their noses into the nether parts and, causing new life to happen. Capiche?
**Tenzin **pretty much has it covered. Fruit is an enlarged ovary. Generally, the rest of the flower parts dry up and fall off. But not all of then, always; if you look at the base of an apple, for example, the sepals are still there.
If it makes you feel any better, not many people know that chili peppers are a fruits.
Between you and Tenzin, I hath seen the light. Picture me basking.