Parts of a Flower - Calyx and Corolla MCQ - Practice Questions with Answers

The Flower

• The flower is the reproductive unit in the angiosperms. It is meant for sexual reproduction.
• The flower can be defined as a specialised condensed shoot of an angiospermic plant in which the shoot apical meristem is converted into floral meristem.
• Like a branch, the flower may develop in the axil of leaves of bracts.
• The lower nodes of the flower develops into pedicel.
• The upper nodes are not clearly visible. These are condensed. This region of the condensed nodes and internodes present at the tip of the pedicel is called the thalamus or receptacle.
• The thalamus gives rise to the floral appendages.
• The floral appendages are present in the form of whorls (group and arranged in a circle).
• There are four whorls in a typical flower:

1. Calyx, the unit is sepal
2. Corolla, the unit is petal
3. Androecium, the unit is stamen
4. Gynoecium, the unit is carpel 

• A flower which has all the four whorls present is called a complete flower.
• A flower in which any one or more whorls are absent is called an incomplete flower.
• Some flowers, like lilies, do not have calyx and corolla present separately. Instead there is a single whorl called perianth whose units are called tepals.
• A flower in which both the androecium and gynoecium are present is called a bisexual flower.
• A flower in which either androecium or gynoecium is present is called a unisexual flower.
• Those unisexual flowers that have only androecium are called staminate flowers.
• Those unisexual flowers that have only gynoecium are called pistillate flowers. 
• Those plants that have both staminate and pistillate flowers present on them are called monoecious plants, e.g., corn.
• Those plants that have staminate and pistillate flowers separately present are called dioecious plant, e.g., papaya, date palm, etc.