Introduction About Wild Flower Growing

Technically a flower is the reproductive structure which produces fruit and seeds. This is slightly different from the popular usage which often asesms the entire plant, as when we speak of the "wild flowers of the United Saks." Many flowers are brilliantly colored, but such a feature is not necessarily the criterion of a flower. Some flowers are an inconspicuous green or Isaank others are small and easily overlooked. Still others, in themselves insignificant, are associated with colored accessory parts, as in jack-in-the- pulpit, Bunchberry and Pearly Everlasting.A typical flower consists of four parts. In the center is the pistil in which the seeds are formed and from which all or part of the fruit is developed. Its tip may be a striking feature of the flower, as in Pitcher-plant and Blue Flag. Surrounding the pistil is a group of stamens which produce the powdery yellow pollen. Stamens are sometimes a conspicuous portion of the flower, as in Meadow Rue. In the majority of flowers, however, it is the floral envelope or perianth which is the showy portion. This may consist of undifferentiated colored segments as in Lily flowers, or it may be differentiated into an inner corolla and an outer calyx.

The calyx is usually green and may consist of separate segments known as sepals. However, the calyx is the conspicuous portion of the Dutchman's- pipe flower, and the sepals are the colored flower parts in Marsh Marigold and Hepatica. The corolla is usually the colored portion of the flower; its segments are known as petals. Thus a complete flower consists of pistil stamens, petals and sepals in that order. Occasionally leaf-like structures or bracts are present beneath the flower, adding to its conspicuousness. Such are the red-tipped bracts of Painted Cup, the white spathe of Water Arum and the white petallike bracts of l3unchberry.

Not all flowers possess all of these floral parts, or the same numbers of each. Hence it is possible to identify many flowering plants by careful observation of the flower structure. In some families there is no perianth, as in the Spurges and Cattails. In others the perianth is present but not differentiated into calyx and corolla, as in the Lily family. In most cases there is both a calyx and corolla, but again there may be a great variation in the number of petals and sepals, and the degree of their fusion with each other. The Buttercup and Rose families include many species with separate petals and sepals; in the Morning-glory and Composite families the petals are fused to form a tubular or funnel-shaped corolla.