Question

Pistillate occurs in
A. Male flowers of Cucurbits
B. Female flowers of Cucurbits
C. Male flowers of Salvia
D. Disc florets of Sunflower

Answer 1

The female reproductive part of a flower is called a pistil. The flowers which have only the female reproductive organs- Stigma, ovary and style are called Pistillate flowers.

Complete Answer:
- Pistillate flowers have only female reproductive organs, hence it cannot occur in the male flowers of Cucurbits as they are Staminate. In other words, they have the male reproductive parts of Cucurbits.
- Similarly, the male flowers of Salvia are also staminate (have only the male reproductive organs). They are thus unisexual and cannot be pistillate.
- The disc of a sunflower is an example of inflorescence (group of flowers which grow from the stem or apex) and are not unisexual. So, in this condition too, it can’t be Pistillate.
- In Cucurbits, we can say that they are monoecious which means that separate male and female flowers can be noticed on the same plant. Normally, male flowers try to open first before female flowers. When both male and female flowers open, only then the activity of pollination can occur.

Hence, we can say that the female flowers of Cucurbits are examples of pistillate, that is, they have female reproductive organs only.

Note: Unisexual flowers are evolved from the Angiosperms. There are two types of unisexual flowers.They are called as Staminate and Pistillate. In Angiosperms, the seeds are found inside the flower which is not the case in Gymnosperms. In the ovary, the Angiosperm eggs are fertilized and then they are developed into the seeds in the final stage.