The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

I have a tree fuschia in full flower. When I looked at the flowers today I noticed that there are numbers of flowers with 5 petals (are they sepals?), and one even has 6 petals. Is this usual? What are the small black (petals) at the corners where each petal joins into the corolla? or cup, or trumpet part of the flower ? And what as the globe shaped swelling at the top of the flower stem? What is the oval shaped swelling further down the flower stem?

Hi Kath - the obvious petal-like parts of Fuchsia flowers are the sepals, its petals are tucked inside and barely visible (usually dark purple, but you might have seen black ones). The 'cup' you describe is made up of fused sepals (this type of fusion is connate - that is, fusion occurs between similar flower parts). The small swelling is at the top near the stem is the receptacle - containing the ovule and ovary which after pollination ripen to form the fruit and seeds.

I suggest you download the NZPCN module 1 "An Introduction to Plant Life in New Zealand" here: http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/page.aspx?conservation_training_course_Introduction_to_plant_life

It explains basic plant anatomy terms using NZ plants as examples.

I'm very surprised to hear of a Fuchsia having 6 sepals - perhaps one split? Dicotyledons have flowers whose parts divide into 4 or 5 parts.

Thanks for that information Jessie. Your introduction sounds interesting too. One plant has numerous flowers with 5, 6, and 7 petals. One looks like 2 flowers fused together, the others just look like standard flowers but with more petals. The seven petaled flower is a bit warped and a couple of the petals on that flower don't have stamen growing through them, but the others all have produced more stamen too.