There they are, Mono and Di. The greatest things that has happened to my botany life.
- The stamen is the male reproductive organ of the plant. It is composed of the anthers and filament. The anthers are what give off the sperm (pollen). They are held and located at the tip of the filament.
- The pistil (aka carpel) is the female reproduction organ of the plant. It is composed of the stigma, style, and ovary. The stigma is what catches the sperm (pollen). It travels down the style which directs it to the ovary. The ovary then releases the pollen to the ovule which it contains, which then initiates gametic fusion (eggs are stored in the ovule) and the creation of a seed.
- The petal is what attracts carriers of pollen to the flower to make the "exchange" parsay (pollen for nectar for example).
- Sepals (which would be between the petals in the picture) surround the petals and act as protection for the plant. They protect the plant while the flowers are in a bud state and when the flower is mature it protects from insect attack or poison.
- Double fertilization is when a sperm combines with both the egg and cell in the plant. Pollen grain has two sperm and one combines with the egg to make a zygote and the other combines with two nuclei to form the endosperm. The endosperm is the embryo's food supply and is usually composed of starch.
picture from here
I was wrong before when I thought I saw the terminal bud on Di. This is it! How exciting!
- The bud will lead to a flower
- The node is the originating are of a stem
- The internode is the space between nodes
| MONOCOTS | DICOTS |
| 1.Embryo with single cotyledon | 1.Embryo with two cotyledons |
| 2.Pollen with single furrow or pore | 2.Pollen with three furrows or pores |
| 3.Flower parts in multiples of three | 3.Flower parts in multiples of four or five |
| 4.Major leaf veins parallel | 4.Major leaf veins reticulated |
| 5.Stem vacular bundles scattered | 5.Stem vascular bundles in a ring |
| 6.Roots are adventitious | 6.Roots develop from radicle |
| 7.Secondary growth absent | 7.Secondary growth present |
Relatives of Mono (corn)
Wheat
Palm tree
Grass
Relatives of Di (bean)
Sunflower
Tomato plant
Pea plant
Images from here, here, here , here , and here
Translocation is the transport of nutrients and solutes throughout the plant. This is done by the phloem which carries food and minerals throughout the plant. Phloem, unlike xylem, transports materials (carbohydrates) both upwards and downwards which act as food for the plant. They are composed of sieve tubes and companion cells. The companion cells conduct sugars into the sieve tubes which transport the sugar through the phloem.
image from here
- Transpiration is the carrying of water from the roots to the leafs and released out of pores in the leaf. Its function is to give off excess water taken up for plant growth and photosynthesis.
- Turgor pressure is the pressure pushed up against the cell wall.
- Vascular tissue is made up by the xylem and phloem. By means of vascular tissue, nutrients and water are transported throughout the plant.
- Soil contributes to plant growth immensely. Soil contains the nutrients and moisture that plants need to grow and survive. Photosynthesis allows for plants to grow and is obtained through the soil.
- The casparian strip is like the guard cell of the vascular tissue. It blocks solutes and water from entering the vascular tissue and thus into being transported throughout the plant.
- The xylem is one of the two vascular tissues and serves the main purpose of transporting water and dissolved ions upwards throughout the plant. It's structure looks like this. Composed off a membrane and tracheids which are cells that transport water through the xylem tubes.
- Gas exchange is through the stomata and guard cells. The stomata are holes in the leaf epidermis that allows gas exchange while the guard cells protects the stomata by closing and opening by swelling. There are two guard cells to every stoma. So the stomata is the hole and the guard cells allow for things to enter or leave the stomata.
My baby bean roots.
'
Beutiful Mono's (corn) roots
There are four types of roots in a plant
- Adeventituous root- Adventituous roots are roots that grow in abnormal locations such as from a stem.
- Tap root- A tap root is a vertical downword root that has outgrowths of other roots on it
- Primary root- Are the first root produced by a germinating seed
- Lateral root- Spawn from the primary root to anchor the plant
Roots have little hairs at the end called root hairs. These function as ways for the plant to bring in nutrients and water to promote growth.
Alright its that time to teach of growth my young padawons.
- First off is the meristem. This is the part of the plant that is constantly dividing to form new tissue so the plant thus keeps growing.
- The primary structure is growth of the buds to form leaves while secondary structure is the further growth of roots and stems.
- The vascular cambium is the early stages of the vascular system in a plant.
- Hormones involved in plants growth include auxin, cytokinin, ABA, and gibberlin. For now I'm going to take auxin and cytokinin for an example. Auxin is a harmone that coordinates growth and behavioral processes in a plant's development. Cytokinin is a hormone that promotes cell division and differentiation thus the growth of the plant.
- A trophism is when there is a stimulus in the environment and a biological organism reacts to that. Here in my case there is limited sunlight where I have my plants during certain parts of the day. During the morning the sunporch outside blocks the sun and when it passes over around 4pm it get less and less sun as the window begins to block light as the sun moves west. Here is a great illustration of trophism as my baby corn is now leaning towards the source of sunlight.
I don't mean to exclude my other child, Mono. I love them equally. His growth has been great, if not better than that that of Di (bean).
Further showing the rapid growth of the stem. These three pictures were over a timespan of two days
Check this beauty out, growing like a stud
Above is a basic sketch of the plant life cycle. The sporophyte generation occurs at the spores where cells divide via meiosis producing a multicellular haploid generation which is the gametophyte generation. These cells then divide by mitosis and gametes join with other gametes to produce a diploid zygote forming the sporophyte generation (diploid) which grows to repeat the process.
Picture from here
Also along with the topic of germination are factors that influence germination. First off germination is when the seed begins to sprout and grow. Now before we get to what influences germination let me make two points. Seed dormancy and viability. Seed dormancy is the period of time where the seed will refuse to germinate after it develops in order to ready itself for germination. Seed viability is whether the seed is viable to germinate or not. A seed can "expire" after a prolonged period of not being acted upon (ie. water, soil). So in some cases people that started there plant project very late could potentially have dormant, unviable seeds because they sat alone for so long without growth factors acting upon them. When seeds are viable, they need water to come to life. Water allows for the softening of the seed coat to allow for the seed to take root and grow. This process is called imbibition.Other factors that influence germination can be the pH of the soil (which also aids in the softening of the hard seed coat), amount of sunlight given (some seeds germinate better in darkness), and the texture of the soil (obstructions could be present in the soil).
Alright, now that both of my babies have germinated lets discuss how they got to where they are to this point. My babies first started as seeds so lets discuss that topic.
In the plants' infancy they looked like this
The embryo is the actual seed before it develops and takes root into the soil.
The cotyledon is by definition "an embryonic in seed-bearing plants, one or more of which are the first leaves to appear from a germinating seed." So hear the cotyledon is obviously in a pre-mature stage but it will develop into the initial leaves of the plant. It is present in both mono and dicot seeds.
The endosperm by definition is "the part of a seed that acts as food store for the developing plant embryo." The endosperm usually contains starch along with protein and other nutrients to promote growth of the plant.
The epicotyl is by definition "the region of an embryo or seedling stem above the cotyledon." In plain terms it is the stem segment above the cotyledon. It is what drives the elongation and vertical growth of the plant.It is present in both mono and dicot seeds.
The radicle is the part of the seed that develops into roots.The hypocotyl is what will develop into the part of the root directly beneath the cotyledon.
above image from here
The time has come. The real time that is when my bean has finally germinated. Look at the broad stem that boy has and the boldness. In the same picture you can see the intruder plants cowering in the corner in fear of the mighty bean.