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For this flower dissection, we're using a lily
because it's a really large flower that's got really obvious and very
distinct reproductive parts.
Now the first thing that we're going to do
is remove this outer layer here.
These are the parts known as the sepals.
And you can see there, they are the first thing
that comes out at the top of the stem of the flower.
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We can see here on this diagram, there
is the stem, the receptacle at the top.
And the sepals are sticking out either side, and they're in green.
The petals are above them, and they're brightly
colored to attract insects.
Here you can see the sepals are green on the bud of the flower.
But in the earlier stages of it starting to bloom,
they are the same color as the petals.
So in this particular species, the petals and the sepals
look almost identical.
Now that we've removed a few sepals and petals,
we can see much more clearly what's on the inside of this flower.
And you can see on this one that we've
got both the male and the female reproductive parts,
which have been produced at once.
At the base of the petals here, we've
got this sticky sugar-containing fluid, and this is known as nectar.
And it's there to attract insects, which
are necessary for pollination.
Let's take a closer look now at the male reproductive part
of the flower.
This part is known as the stamen.
And the stamen contains the anther, supported by a stringy thing called
the filament.
The job of the anthers is to produce pollen.
The anthers produce the male gametes of the flower.
In the earlier stages of blooming of the flower,
you can see the pollen starting to burst out of the anthers.
But once the flower's more mature, they're
a lot more exposed and readily released from the anthers.
And you can see these coming off here as a sort of dust.
We can put this onto a microscope slide,
and then put it under the lens to have a little closer look at it.
And you'll be able to see the individual pollen grains that have
been released from the anthers.
Next, let's have a look at the female reproductive part
of the flower.
At the bottom here is the ovary.
This is the slightly large, inflated part, which will
go on to develop into the fruit.
Above that is the style.
And at the top of the style here is the stigma.
And this is where the pollen must land.
In the diagram here, you can see the carpel with the ovary at the bottom
and the style above it and the stigma on top.
This is the female part of the flower.
And inside of the ovary are the ovules.
Here we've got the female gametes.
We can now cut into the ovary so that we
can get a little bit of a closer look of what
this looks like on the inside.
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We've cut off the outer layer.
And now we'll cut off a little section of it
so that we can have a closer look.
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On the inside of the ovary, we've got
lots and lots and lots of these absolutely tiny, little ovules.
We really need to see them under a microscope
to get a good view of them.
So that's the entire structure of the flower,
with the sepals coming out of the receptacle at the base,
the petals above them, which are there to attract insects, which
is why they're brightly colored.
The female system is known as the carpel, which
contains the ovary at the bottom with ovules inside of it,
the style above that, and the stigma at the top.
And the stigma is the place that receives the pollen.
The male part is known as the stamen, which
consists of anthers at the top of it and the filament beneath it,
supporting it.
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