(3/15) If you are a gardener, as I am, who retired from a completely different field of work, you may be interested in learning more about Botany. For myself, I retired as a health and physical education instructor, having had experience teaching sex education to high school juniors. So, learning more about the sex organs of a plant is not a huge stretch.

All plants contain the same sexual make-up, but most of the parts are microscopic. A few hang everything out there for all to see, so it’s easy to study their parts. I am thinking lilies and tulips for openers.

I’m guessing that when you look at my photo of beautiful lilies, you didn’t realize that you are looking at a close up of their intimate reproductive parts.

A tulip will discretely close its petals on a dull or rainy day, or during the night. This action helps protect its delicate parts. But when the sun comes shining brightly, it opens those petals to invite the pollinators in because it knows that pollinators like to work in the warmth of the sun, and all flowering plants need the work of the pollinators in order to produce a fertile seed.

Did you know that flowers only look and smell nice for the purpose of attracting more pollinators? They could care less about pleasing us humans!

Look closely inside my red tulip. The inside base of the flower is purple which makes it look like a shadow but it isn't. Down deep inside, it has four dark purple filaments, on top of which are the anthers. The anthers are the little structures that produce the pollen. These two parts, the anther and the filament, make up the male part of the flower which together is then called the Stamen.

In the center of the flower is the Pistil (the female part) which looks a little like a long-necked bottle. At the top of the "bottle" is the sticky stigma (looks white in my photo) that collects the pollen when the pollen loaded bee rubs against it. It sends the pollen down the style (neck of the bottle) to the ovary (rounded base of the bottle) where it will now fertilize the egg. The three parts together make up the Pistil which is the female part of the flower.

Remember that the petals of flowers are usually brightly colored for the purpose of attracting bees. The bees are also attracted by the sweet scent of the flower. Take these facts into consideration if you are working outside and wish to avoid unwanted contact with bees. Avoid wearing perfume of any kind including sweetly scented soaps, hand creams, or essential oils. Avoid wearing flowered clothing, and stick to whites, light colors and especially khaki. These light colors are not at all attractive to bees.

When I work outside, I wear a tightly fitting large-brimmed hat to keep the sun off my face, and prevent any insects from falling into my hair when I am crawling under bushes. The only problem is, the hat is BLUE (a bee’s favorite color). A few times, a bee has made the mistake of zooming in before it realizes its mistake. The experience produces a little excitement on my part because that bee is very loud so close to my face, but I have learned to gently brush it away, knowing full well it is not attacking me…. It’s just lost! A better choice would be a white or tan hat.

So, the bee goes into the flower for the purpose of looking for the sweet nectar. The flowers have nectaries that produce the nectar, and are always found at the very bottom of the Stamen. The bee, with its fuzzy little body, crawls down in there and can’t help brushing against the anthers and getting sticky pollen all over its fuzz. As it passes the Stigma on its way back out, some of that pollen transfers to the Stigma. It’s their fuzz that makes bees the best of the pollinators.

(As a side note, notice the word Sticky. This is your key to remembering that Goldenrod does not cause allergies! Goldenrod has heavy, sticky pollen. It cannot float in the air and cause allergies. Goldenrod is a top pollinator plant because of its very nutritious nectar and pollen. Ragweed is the allergy culprit here!)

One single flower does not have enough nectar to satisfy the bee, so it has to go from flower to flower to get itself a satisfactory meal, thereby cross-pollinating and enabling fertilization of a large patch. This is also called open pollination.

Take a close look at one of these flowers, and see if you can now recognize the parts. It makes gardening a whole lot more interesting.