Video Transcript
Flowers can be divided into
whorls. These are circular sections that
each contain a different organ of the flower. The names of those whorls are shown
in the diagram. Which whorl contains the
carpel?
Let’s start by remembering what the
carpel refers to. The carpel consists of the female
reproductive structures in the flower. It includes the stigma, style, and
ovary. In this diagram, we can see these
structures of the flower here. Here is the stigma, here is the
style, and here is the ovary. These three structures together
make up the structure called the carpel. In the diagram, you can see the
names of the four different whorls of the flower, each represented in a different
color.
We could identify the name of the
whorl that contains the carpel by looking at the name labeling the carpel
structure. Additionally, the names of the
whorls contain Latin words and word parts that can help us understand what they
refer to and what is included in them. For example, the word part gyn- or
gyno- refers to female. So the gynoecium contains the
female parts of the flower. Andro- means male. So the androecium contains the male
parts of the flower. A corolla is a wreath, so that
refers to the so-called decorative parts of the flower, or the petals. And a calyx is a cup, so this
refers to the cuplike shape of the sepals.
We can see in the diagram that the
female reproductive parts of the stigma, style, and ovary that make up the carpel
are labeled as gynoecium. Knowing that the carpel contains
the female reproductive parts of the flower, we could also determine that gynoecium
is the best match based on the word part that means female. So, either of these ways, we could
determine that the correct answer for this question is gynoecium. The whorl that contains the carpel
is the gynoecium.
