Mystery Plant: 'Million bells,' Calibrachoa cultivar

Well, folks, it’s late summer, and that means it’s time for a couple more botany terms! Are you ready? OK!

The truly vibrant flowers in this photo deserve a thought or two. Of course, it is the corolla which is vibrantly colored, the corolla consisting of all the petals fused at their edges (five petals in this case). Below or “behind” the corolla is going to be a green calyx, which consists of all the sepals fused together (5 sepals in this case). Now, when flower parts of like structure are fused to each other, we say that they are “connate”. So here, the corolla is made up of 5 connate petals, and the calyx is made up of five connate sepals. If you look inside the corolla, you will see five stamens… you know, the little stalked things that produce the pollen. Each of the five stamens here is fused to the inner surface of the corolla. We say then, that the stamens are “adnate” to the corolla, since stamens and the corolla are not “like” parts. (You can remember it this way: “adnate” refers to unlike things stuck together, like your finger “ad”hered to a Bandaid.)