Recent preparation for a class about the relationship between flowers and their fruits led me to collect an apple blossom (Malus spp.) for closer study. Apples are in the Rose family (Rosaceae) with the characteristics of having five flower parts and serrate-edged leaves. The flower is perfect because it has both the male stamens (filament and anther) and female pistils (stigma, style, and ovary) on a single blossom. The fruit, an apple, is a pome which consists of a fleshy receptacle and tough central core that houses the seeds. Slicing an apple in half (top to bottom) reveals these structures and slicing it in the other dimension (side to side) shows five sections. I was curious to know how the five sections corresponded with the stigma and style. A fruit with five fused sections (carpels) might have a single style with a five-lobed stigma at the top. The apple, I found, has five separate styles, each with a single-lobed stigma. Though it's a feature well suited for observation with a magnifying lens and not probably of much interest to the general public, it did help me better understand the flower, position of the receptacle, and the formation of the five sections that contain the seeds. I may or may not remember all of this when I'm savoring the juices and fleshy fruit but today, I'm happy to have taken the time to look at this perfectly lovely flower. 
serrate leaf edge perfect flower with stamen & pistil
five pistils five sepals
multiple stamens inferior ovary
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