WHEAT FLOWERS 



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ber of small spikelets, with two or more flowers in each 

 spikelet. These spikelets are arranged alternately on the 

 spike on either side of a central stem, or rachis. Each indi- 

 vidual flower, or floret, is composed of a branched stigma, 

 three anthers, and one outer and one inner flowering glume, 

 commonly called the chaff. At the base of each spikelet are 

 two flowerless, or 

 empty glumes. 

 At the base of and 

 between the two 

 flowering glumes 

 is a small organ 

 called the lodi- 

 cule, which, when 

 the stigma is ready 

 to be fertilized, 

 absorbs water, 

 swells, and forces 

 open the glumes. 

 Figure 47 shows 

 a spikelet and a 

 flower of the wheat plant 

 low to black. 



Wheat is almost always close-fertilized; that is, each 

 ovary is fertilized by the pollen from the same flower. The 

 anthers are so arranged that the pollen is deposited on the 

 receptive stigma as the anthers are being pushed up out of 

 the glumes by the lengthening of the filaments. It is prob- 

 ably very rare that any cross-fertilization takes place. On 

 this account, wheat varieties are veiy stable in character, for 

 it is much easier to keep close-fertilized plants pure than 

 open-fertilized ones like corn and rye. 



The fruit, known as the kernel, at maturity is in the form 

 of an oblong beriy with a longitudinal crease, or furrow, in 

 one side. The kernels naturally vary in size, color, weight, 



Figure 47. — At the left, a wheat flower; at the right, a 

 spikelet of wheat in bloom. 



The color varies from light yel- 



