The stylized image is what we call a Gerbera flower. It has three kinds of florets and there are many in each 'flower'. At the outer edge are showy petals and these are part of the ray florets. These are only female - they have no pollen. The next group of florets (moving towards the centre) are called trans florets and are only female. In the centre of the 'flower' are disc florets. These are both female and male. To hybridize Gerbera you would need to place pollen from the disc florets on the stigma (female part) of any of the florets. Each floret produces only one seed. Only the ray florets have large showy petals, those on the trans florets differ in size in different cultivars. In the figure above the florets are the small circles inside the large circle. |