At first glance, it’s difficult to tell whether a flower is male or female, especially if you’re an inexperienced gardener like me.

To be honest, I never thought about a flower’s gender until a co-worker asked which zucchini flowers could be consumed or cooked with. I didn’t know what to tell her, so I asked Jeanne Nolan.

“You want to use male flowers to cook with because female flowers turn into fruit,” Nolan said. “But you need to leave some male flowers to pollinate the female flowers.”

How do you tell the difference between male and female flowers?

“Male flowers are taller and go straight from the stem to the flower,” Nolan said. “Female flowers have a little bump. When they’re fertilized that’s where the zucchini is produced… female flowers are found closer to the base of the plant.”