stamen

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower, usually consisting of a filament and an anther.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The warp in the ancient upright loom at which the weaver stood upright instead of sitting; a thread of the warp; a thread.
2. n. plural The supports or mainstays of a body; the fixed, firm part of a body, which supports it or gives it its strength and solidity: as, the bones are the stamina of animal bodies; the ligneous parts of trees are stamina which constitute their strength.
3. n. Hence [Pl. stamina, now sometimes used as sing.] Whatever constitutes the principal strength or support of anything; power of endurance; staying power; lasting strength or vigor.
4. n. In botany, the male or fertilizing organ of flowering plants. It is situated immediately within the inner circle of floral envelops, or petals when they are present, and consists of two parts, the filament, which is the stalk or support, and the anther, which is a double sac or body of two cells placed side by side and filled with a powdery substance, the pollen. This pollen, when mature, is discharged from the anther through various openings or pores. Theoretically the stamen is the homologue of a leaf, in which the two cells of the anther represent the infolded halves of the blade, while the connective represents the midrib and the filament the petiole of the leaf. The pollen represents the parenchyma of the leaf. The stamens of a flower are collectively called the andrœcium. When both stamens and pistils are present in the same flower it is said to be hermaphrodite or perfect; when only stamens are present the flower is said to be staminate or male. The number of stamens varies in different plants from one to one hundred or more, but is generally constant for the same species, and forms an important element in the system of classification. The classes in the Linnean sexual system were based upon the number and position of the stamens; and in the natural system they are still an important factor. In regard to their insertion, stamens may be hypogynous, epigynous, or perigynous, or the flower may be gynandrous (see these words). See also cuts under anther, anthophore, diadelphous, epigynous, extrorse, introrse. and many plant-names.

Wiktionary

1. n. botany In flowering plants, the structure in a flower that produces pollen, typically consisting of an anther and a filament.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A thread; especially, a warp thread.
2. n. (Bot.) The male organ of flowers for secreting and furnishing the pollen or fecundating dust. It consists of the anther and filament.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the male reproductive organ of a flower