The inner beauty of flowers

Beautiful flowers bring joy and graciousness to our lives. They are beautiful and can be used for decoration or as romantic presents. Have you, though, wondered the function of the flowers to a plant?

In the e-KLESF 2021 webinar “Inner Beauty of Flowers” which was held on 24 October 2021, UTAR Department of Science and Engineering Head Ooi Siew Fong and lecturer Voon Kah Loon from the Centre for Foundation Studies of Kampar Campus brought participants to look into the world of flowers. The participants learned all about flowers and the role they play in the reproduction of plants.

Voon explaining the transition of flowers to fruits

Voon explaining the different terms related to flowers 

The webinar first began with Voon explaining the overview of a flowering plant, the structure of flowers and its functions. He explained how a flower turns into a fruit, “Fruits are developed by flowers. When pollen grains from the male organ attach to the stigma, it develops a pollen tube for the sperm to travel down the style and fertilise the ovule. The fertilised ovules will grow into a zygote and form an embryo. The ovule will then turn into a seed, and the embryo is found inside the seed. The ovary will later turn into a fruit.” He also explained the difference between the pairs of terms related to flowers, guiding on how to differentiate whether a flower is perfect or imperfect; complete or incomplete, and monoecious or dioecious.

Ooi listing out the tools that can be used to dissect a flower

 

Ooi performing a flower dissection 

On the other hand, Ooi dissected a lily flower step by step to visually show the different parts of the flower to the participants. During the dissection process, she labelled the different parts of the flower on a piece of paper and placed the dissected pieces with the correct label.

In order to enhance the participants’ understanding of plants’ reproductive structures and give them hands-on practice thinking, a competition was held to encourage the participants to find their inspiration and create their very own flower artwork. The winner will be announced on the last day of e-KLESF on 31 October 2021 during the e-Award Ceremony.

More information about the competition is available on KLESF website.

Click here to view the video.