flower

The floret is the individual flower of the Zea mays plant. In the grass family (Poaceae, alt. Gramineae) each floret is typically bisexual (perfect), possessing both an androecium and a gynoecium. Each floret typically has a pair of bracts, the lemma and palea, which subtend the floret. It is important to note that In Zea mays the florets of the 'tassel' are functionally male (the female component (gynoecium) having aborted early on in development). The florets of the 'ear' are functionally female (the male components (androecium) having aborted early on in development). The possession of functionally male and functionally female florets (or flowers) on the same plant is a condition called monoecy. While Zea mays is functionally monoecious, the presence of both androecial and gynoecial tissue in the early stages of floret ontogeny is phylogenetically significant. Consequently, the androecium is represented in the florets of the ear and the gynoecium is represented in the florets of the tassel, even though either of these whorls is absent in the functional florets. The inclusion of both whorls in the floret ontology for the florets of ears and spikelets is based on this phylogenetically significant ontogeny. East and Hayes (1911, p. 134-135) provided the following: "Perhaps it should be mentioned in passing that the immature sex organs, so called, of maize seem endowed with the power of becoming either stamens or carpels. One often finds a normal ear ending in stamens, and nearly every plant produces lateral branches which have carpels and stamens mixed together indiscriminantly." Studies of mutants have explored these occurrences and similar occurrences in tassels, corroborating the inherent bisexual nature of the floret meristem prior to the subsequent development of the monoecious condition.

http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ZEA_0015131

http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ZEA_0015086

http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ZEA_0015086