ament: a catkin, which is a scaly-bracted, usually drooping spike or spike-like raceme with unisexual flowers; typical of willows and poplars

anther: the pollen-producing part of the stamen, usually borne atop the filament

anthesis: the time of expansion of a flower

apetalous: having no petals

apocarpous: carpels separate, not united

bract: a much-reduced leaf, especially the small or scale-like leaves in a flower cluster, or associated with flowers

bractlet: bract borne on a secondary axis, as on a pedicel or the petiole

calyx: the outer circle of floral envelopes, comprised of sepals

calyx tube: the tube of a calyx in which the sepals are grown together

campanulate: bell-shaped

carpel: one unit of a compound pistil or ovary; a simple pistil has one carpel

catkin: a scaly-bracted, usually drooping spike or spike-like raceme with unisexual flowers; typical of willows and poplars

CLEISTOGAMOUS FLOWER

cleistogamous flowers: small, closed, self-fertilized flowers, as in some violets; they mostly grow on or under the ground

composite: a term referring to an organ or structure that looks like one large thing, but actually is composed of several distinct parts, as among blossoms of the Composite Family

corolla: the inner circle or whorl of floral envelopes; if the parts are separate, they are petals, but if the parts are united they are corolla lobes

corymb: a short, broad, more or less flat-topped, indeterminate flower cluster in which the outer flowers open first

cyme: a broad, more or less flat-topped, determinate flower cluster in which the central flowers open first

diadelphous: describing a flower's cluster of stamens in which the stamens are held in two bundles or clusters, as in many legumes in which there are nine stamens in one bundle and one stamen in the second (as opposed to monadelphous)

dioecious: describing a plant in which the staminate (male) flowers and the pistillate (female) flowers occur on separate plants, so you can speak of the "male plant" and the "female plant"

disk-flowers: tubular flowers in the center heads of most Composite-Family members, as distinguished from the ray-flowers

filament: the stalk of the anther

florets: individual flowers of composites and grasses

gamopetalous: corolla with the petals united, at least at their base, so that the corolla is removable as a single structure

glume: a small bract, especially one of the two empty bracts at the base of a grass spikelet

gynoecium: the female part of a flower

head: a compact mass of flowers at the top of a stem

HYPANTHIUM ON WILD ROSE

hypanthium: the cup-like receptacle on which are borne calyx, corolla and stamens; sometimes called the "calyx tube"

hypogynous: borne below the ovary; said of the stamens or petals

inferior ovary: an ovary developed below the calyx's sepals

inflorescence: the "flower cluster," or "mode of flower bearing"

involucre: one or more whorls of bracts located close beneath a flower or flower-cluster

irregular flower: non-symmetrical flowers; flowers in which some parts differ from other parts in the same series -- so some stamens may be long and some short, or some sepals may be larger than others

keeled: in papilionaceous flowers, the two front united petals, which unite to form a ridge like the bottom of a boat

labellum: the lip, as the lip of an orchid flower

lemma: in grasses, the lower of the two bracts immediately inclosing the flower, the upper one being the palea

monadelphous: stamens united in one group by their filaments (as opposed to diadelphous)

monoecious: staminate (male) and pistillate (female) flowers on the same plant, as in corn (as opposed to dioecious, in which unisexual flowers occur on the separate plants)

naked flower: having no floral envelope (no calyx or corolla)

ovary: the ovule-bearing part of a pistil

ovule: the body which, after fertilization, comes the seed

palea: in grass flowers, the upper of the two inclosing bracts, the lower one being the lemma

panicle: an indeterminate, branching raceme; a flower-cluster in which the branches are racemose and the flowers are pedicellate

PAPILIONACEOUS FLOWER

papilionaceous corolla: butterfly-like; a pea-like flower, with a standard, wings and keel

pappus: on composite flowers, special appendages borne on the ovary and persisting in the fruit, and appearing in a variety of shapes, as plumose (feather-like), bristles, scales, crowns, etc.

peduncle: stem of a flower-cluster, or of a solitary flower when that flower is the only member of an inflorescence

perianth: the calyx and corolla considered together

perigynous: borne around the ovary and not beneath it

petal: one unit of the corolla, usually colored and more or less showy

pistil: the female part of the flower, composed of ovary, style and stigma

pistillate: said of unisexual female flowers -- having pistils but no functional stamens

placentation: the arrangement of ovules within the ovary

pollen: spores or grains borne by the anther containing the male sex germ

pollinium: a stuck-together mass of pollen, as in orchids and milkweeds

polygamous: bearing unisexual and hermaphrodite flowers on the same plant

raceme: a simple, elongated, indeterminate inflorescence with pedicelled flowers

ray: outer florets of some composites, bearing flat, corolla-like appendages; also the branches of an umbel or umbel-like cluster

receptacle: the more or less expanded apex of a floral axis which bears the floral parts, as the collection of bracts below the disk and ray flowers of a sunflower

regular flower: a symmetrical flower in which each part of a series is like all other parts -- so all stamens would be alike, all sepals the same length, etc.

salverform: having a slender tube and an abruptly expanded, flat limb, as with the phlox flower

sepal: one of the parts of a calyx

sessile: having no stalk

spike: an unbrached, elongated, simple, indeterminate inflorescence with sessile flowers

GRASS SPIKELET

spikelet: the floral unit, or ultimate cluster, of a grass inflorescence comprised of flowers and their subtending bracts

stamen: the male part of the flower typically composed of the sac-like, pollen-producing anther atop the stem-like filament

standard: the upper and broad petal of a papilionaceous flower

stigma: the part of the pistil that receives the pollen

style: the more or less elongated part of the pistil between the ovary and the stigma

superior ovary: ovary that is free from the calyx or perianth

tepal: segment of a perianth not clearly differentiated into typical corolla and calyx, as among the tulip or onion

thyrse: compact, more or less compound panicle, as among most lilacs

umbel: an indeterminate, often flat-topped inflorescence whose pedicels and peduncles arise from a common point

unisexual: of one sex; having stamens only, or pistils only

zygomorphic: said of asymmetrical corollas  -- corollas divisible into equal halves in one plane only; as opposed to "actinomorphic"