Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (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. Flowers give rise to fruit and seeds. Many flowers have evolved to be attractive to animals, so as to cause them to be vectors for the transfer of pollen.
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Famous quotes containing the word flower:
“The awful shadow of some unseen Power
Floats though unseen among us, visiting
This various world with as inconstant wing
As summer winds that creep from flower to flower;”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“A girl could only see
That a flower had marred a man,
But what she could not see
Was that the flower might be
Other than base and fetid:”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
““Eva!” Each syllable
Light as a flower fell;
“Eva!” he whispered the
Wondering maid;”
—Ralph Hodgson (c. 1871–1962)