Gynoecium is most commonly used as a collective term for all
carpels in a
flower. A carpel is the ovule and seed producing reproductive organ in flowering plants. Carpels are derived from ovule-bearing leaves which evolved to form a closed structure containing the ovules. They did this by folding and fusing at their edges to form a chamber in which the ovules develop. In many flowers, several to many carpels are fused into a structure that resembles a single carpel. The term gynoecium is useful because it refers to the ovule producing structure in a flower, whether it is a single carpel, multiple unfused carpels or multiple fused carpels. In a typical flower, the gynoecium is the innermost whorl of structures and is surrounded by the
androecium and then by the
perianth. In
imperfect or incomplete flowers the androecium and perianth, respectively, may be absent. The gynoecium is often referred to as
female because it gives rise to female gametophytes, however, strictly speaking
sporophytes do not have sex, only gametophytes do.
Flowers that bear a gynoecium but no androecium are called
carpellate. Flowers lacking a gynoecium are called
staminate.
powered by
Loading More Stories
