Question

Which of the following terms constitute the female part of the flower?
A. Sepals, petals and stamens.
B. Stigma, style and ovary.
C. Ovary, stamen and stigma.
D. Ovary, style and stamen.

Answer 1

Hint: Plants reproduce sexually and asexually both. Flower is the reproductive part of the plant. The female and male reproductive parts of the flower are known as gynoecium (carpels) and androecium (stamens) respectively. Gynoecium has three parts whereas androecium consists of only two parts.

Complete explanation
Option A Sepal, petal and stamen: Sepals and petals are outer floral parts of the flower which have only a supportive role and are not involved in the process of reproduction. These are also known as nonessential floral organs. Stamen (androecium) is the male reproductive part.
Option A is not correct.
Option B Stigma, style and ovary: the female part of the flower consist of three parts- stigma, style and ovary. stigma is the terminal receptive part and functions as a landing platform for the pollen grains. Style is an elongated, narrow stalk-like structure which connects the stigma with the ovary and the ovary is the basal swollen part of the pistil (single unit of gynoecium) which bears tiny ovules.
So, option B is correct.
Option C Ovary, stamen and stigma: ovary and stigma both are parts of gynoecium whereas stamen is the male reproductive part.
Option C is correct.
Option D Ovary, style and stamen: ovary and style both are parts of the female reproductive organ while stamen is the male reproductive organ.
Option D is not correct.

Note:
Flowers consist of essential and nonessential parts. Essential parts are involved in the process of reproduction while nonessential parts are not. Essential parts are stamen (male reproductive part) and pistil (female reproductive part). Nonessential parts of the flower are sepals (calyx) and petals (corolla). They play supportive roles.