Flowering trees, fruiting trees... [botany]

[Externet]

At the nursery, the trees they sell are labeled as 'fruiting' , 'flowering' , 'shading' 

What are the 'flowering' ones biological purpose ?  Are these somehow manipulated trees; or their flowers have no stamen, stigma, no reproduction purpose ?  Those do not bear fruit.  (Like the ornamental cherry blossoms) How does it work ?

[iNow]

Human driven artificial selection AFAIK

[zapatos]

2 hours ago, Externet said:

What are the 'flowering' ones biological purpose ? 

Reproduction of course. Some trees are male, some are female and some are both. Ornamental trees are often manipulated to produce showy flowers and/or minimal fruit. I've never heard of a flowering tree that produced no fruit at all.

[Skovand]

Most likely what you are seeing is not based around anatomy but around its purpose. Fruiting labels on trees most commonly mean sizable edible fruits for humans. When a label says flowering, it usually just means a tree with showy flowers, like magnolias or tulip poplar. When a tree says shading it often means a tree that is easily limbed up, with a sprawling form and taller.  If you see one that says privacy, it normally means grows quickly and is compact. Often they will grow them far to close, and after a few years remove every other one. 
 

The labels are not usually about anatomy unless it’s male or female related like with holly trees.