Ovary (botany)

In the flowering plants, an ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower or gynoecium. Specifically, it is the part of the pistil which holds the ovule(s) and is located above or below or at the point of connection with the base of the petals and sepals. The pistil may be made up of one carpel or of several fused carpels (e.g. tricarpel), and therefore the ovary can contain part of one carpel or parts of several fused carpels. Above the ovary is the style and the stigma, which is where the pollen lands and germinates to grow down through the style to the ovary, and, for each individual pollen grain, to fertilize one individual ovule. Some wind pollinated flowers have much reduced and modified ovaries.

A fruit is the ripened ovary or ovaries—together with seeds—from one or more flowers. The fruits of a plant are responsible for dispersing the seeds that contain the embryo and protecting the seeds as well. In many species, the fruit incorporates some surrounding tissues, or is dispersed with some non-fruit tissues.

Locules are chambers within the ovary of the flower and fruits. The locules contain the ovules (seeds), and may or may not be filled with fruit flesh. Depending on the number of locules in the ovary, fruits can be classified as uni-locular (unilocular), bi-locular, tri-locular or multi-locular. Some plants have septa between the carpels; the number of locules present in a gynoecium may be equal to or less than the number of carpels, depending on whether septa are present.

The ovules are attached to parts of the interior ovary walls called the placentae. Placental areas occur in various positions, corresponding to various parts of the carpels that make up the ovary. See Ovule#Location within the plant. An obturator is present in the ovary of some plants, near the micropyle of each ovule. It is an outgrowth of the placenta, important in nourishing and guiding pollen tubes to the micropyle.

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