Figure 1

Organization of the male inflorescence and flowers in maize. (a) Inflorescences (tassels) of wild-type (left) and ts4 (right) plants. The normal male tassel is composed of branches (spikes), each of which is made up of spikelets containing two florets each. The threads in the ts4 mutant are female stigmas. (b) A schematic illustration of two male spikelets, each of which is composed of two florets and enclosed by two bracts called glumes. Each floret consists of three stamens enclosed by two bracts, the lemma and the palea (the lodicules are not shown here). Photographs and illustration courtesy of George Chuck.