Parts of a Daisy Flower

Daisies are unusual. What we normally think of as a "daisy flower" is actually a composite made up of collections of two different types of flowers. The center of the daisy flower is a collection of disk flowers. What we think of as petals are actually individual ray flowers. Each ray or disk flower is an individual flower made up of a stamen, carpal and ovary. The ray flowers, however, are sterile. Only the disk flowers are fertile.

Stamen

The stamen are the male parts of the disk flowers that make up the center portion of daisy and daisy-like flowers. The stamen in these central collections of flowers create pollen. Pollen are the male reproductive cells created by the daisy plant's flowers.

Carpal

The carpels in the disk flowers are either single or multiple ovule's on the flower. Flower ovules are structures that contain the female reproductive parts of the daisy. In daisies, the carpels, and thus the female sex organs, are very close to the stamen, or male sex organs of the daisy. This proximity makes insect and wind fertilization more likely and increases the plants chances of successful reproduction.

Ovary

The ovary, which is inside the carpal, is below the upper structures of the disk flowers that make up the center of the daisy. As the pistils produce pollen, wind or insects knock it down into the ovary portion of the carpels. Once fertilized, these ovaries create seeds. For some daisies, the seeds may be smaller than the eye of a needle.

Peduncle

The base onto which the collection of ray and disk flowers attach is called the peduncle. The peduncle grows from the daisy flower's stem and forms a solid base for the different component flowers of the main flower. On some varieties of daisy, the peduncle can look solid. On other flowers, it may have green petal like structures that originally formed the bud of the main daisy flower.