Plant Form and Function

Plants are multi-cellular organisms, which is an organisms that consist of more

than one cell.There also known as eukaryotic organisms.They have a cell wall
made of cellulose.They are photosynthetic, meaning that they convert light
energy to chemical energy by means of chloroplasts located primarily in their
leaves. And last but not least is that they use water via capillary action.

PLANT CLASSIFICATION

Plants have three types of classification:

 Nonvascular
 Seedless vascular
 Seeded vascular
Nonvascular plants (Bryophtyes) - are plant have no vascular tissue's
in other words no  stems, roots, and leaves. Mosses, Liverworts, and
Hornworts belong to that category.

Seedless vascular(tracheophytes) - are plants that contain vascular

tissue, but do not flower or seed.Ferns, horsetails, Whisk ferns, and
Club mosses goes into that category.
 Seeded vascular(tracheophytes) - are plants that have the vascular
tissues xylem and phloem.

Vascular Tissues

In the Tracheophytes group there are two types of tissues that help
seeded and seedless plants carry food into it. There are called Xylem
and Phloem.
Xylem - is a tissue that conducts water and minerals up a plant from its
roots.
Phloem - is another tissue that uses it's vessels to carry nutrient, such
as glucose, to the plant.
Xylem has two types of cells called tracheids and vessels elements.
Tracheids cells – are long and thin
Vessel element - are short and thick.
 When water enter the plants by going through the roots. Roots have
special characteristics called root hairs which increases the surface
area for absorption of materials. Then it goes down to the phloem tissue.
Phloem cells are made of sieve tube elements and companion cells. 
Sieve tube element - are the cells that actually carry the nutrients in
the plants and companion cells just hang around to  lend "support" to
sieve tube elements of tracheophytes.
Ferns are one of the greatest example of transportation of water,
minerals, and nutrient through out itself because of it's vascular tissue.
Ferns are the most ancient and simplest plants of tracheophytes. But
they need huge amount of water to fertilize because of it being seedless.
Gymnosperms and Angiosperms: Tyracheophytes
subdivided even further

In the seeded plant there two types of plant known as

Gymnosperms and Angiosperms.
 Gymnosperms are the woody plants and are the oldest long lasting
plants.
Spruces, hemlocks, and fir are perennial which means they live year after
year. Knowing the age of an gymnosperms is by counting the number of 
tree rings. Tree rings are composed of dead xylem showing the annual
tree growth.
 Angiosperms - are known as "flowering plants". They are most
varied and widespread. The have seeds are usually inside a fruit or a
nut. Some Angiosperms are woody, for example oak, cherry and
walnut. Flowering plants can be divided into two types of classes
called monocots and dicots.
  Monocots - have one single cotyledon-the embryonic seed leaf.
There known to have leaves with parallel veins and flower parts in
multiples of three.Orchids and lillies are good examples of monocots.
 Dicots - have two cotyledon. They have broad leaves with netted
veins, and flower parts in multiples of four or five.

LIFE CYCLE OF PLANTS

In the cell cycle plants have an alternation of generations which is a

pattern of reproduction occurring in the life cycles of many lower plants and
some invertebrates, involving a regular alternation between two distinct
forms. In other words, plants have spend part of their lives as haploids and
part of their lives as diploids.

The word haploid means a single set of unpaired  chromosomes and

the word diploid containing two complete sets of chromosomes, one from
each parent. In the plant cell cycle a haploid plant is called
a gametophyte because it produces haploid gametes (eggs & sperm). The
gametes then come together to create a diploid plant called
as sporophtye. The sporophyte then makes haploid spores due to
meiosis. When hapliod gametes unite during fertilization, a zygote(diploid
cell) if made. This sporophyte begins the sporophtye generation which
makes the zygote divides by mitosis and develops into a multi-cellular
embryo that is supported and protected by the gametophyte.Then the
sporosphyte plant divides and produces spores meiosis. The spores are
known to be the first stage of gametophyte generation. It's capable of
growing into a multi-celluar  gametophyte plant.

PLANT GROWTH

Plants grow by having unspecialized, actively dividing cells

called meristems. This dividing cells make the plant grow by two ways.
There are primary growth and secondary growth.

 Primary growth - increases the length of a plant. This is

caused by a tissue called apical meristems and are located in
the tips of roots and stems.
 Secondary growth - is carried out by the lateral meristems
which makes the dividing cells increase the girth, or width of a
 plant. The lateral meristem is located on the sides of stems and
roots.
 These lateral meristem produces two types of cells
called vascular cambium and cork cambium.
 Vascular cambium - produces secondary xylem and
secondary phleom, replaces the previous(primary) xylem and
primary.
 Cork cambium - produces the tissues of the outer bark of a
tree. Plants also have this thing called lenticels, which allows
for gas exchange through the bark.

SPECIAL FEATURES/STRUCTURES IN PLANTS

Roots
Roots have 3 main regions: the root tip, the elongation region and the
maturation region.
 The root tip and elongation regions ate the sites of ongoing primary
growth. The root apical meristem has small cells that continuously
divide, forming of cell division. As this continues, new left cells grow
rapidly in length which push the root tip along.
  Elongation occurs when cells take in water. Tiny root hairs,
extensions of the epidermal cell form and create an increased surface
area through water dissolved minerals can move into the plant.
 Finally the maturation zone, which lets vascular tissue ,makes
primary xylem and phloem which forms the stele- an inner concentric
cylinder. There's another cylinder cell that surrounds the primary
xylem and phleom called pericycle.

Leaves
Leaves adapt on types of environment there in.

 They can modify themselves to have spines for protection

 They can adapt for water storage if they live in harsh
environments as in the dessert.
 And lastly some can adapt for trapping pray.

There this plants that digest insects. The reason is because they
grow in soils deficient of essential nutrients, mostly nitrogen, which
forces them to eat insects. For example, a Venus flytrap has tiny
hairs that act like mouse trap the moment it feels something
touching it. And as Pitcher plant it made it's leave very slippery
and deep for insects to fall in. Ounce it falls into a mixture of water
and enzymes. As you know what enzymes do break down stuff.
Flowering Plants

There are several organs of a

flower. They
are stamen, pistil, sepals,
and petals. Flowers have
male and female parts of it's
structure. The male parts are
collectively called stamen and
the female parts are called
pistil.Sepals are the green,
leaf-like structures that cover
and defend the flower while
the brightly colored petals attract potential pollinators.

The Stamen(male)

The stamen is an anther and a filament. The anther produces pollen

grains also known as microspores(sperm cells). Microspores are then
released into the air. The filament is the thin stalk that holds up the anther.

The Pistil(female)

The pistil has three structures called the stigma,style,and ovary. The
stigma is the "sticky"portion of the pistil that catches pollen grains. The
style is a tube like structure attaches the stigma and the ovary.The ovary is
where fertilization happens. Inside the ovary is the ovules which has the
plant's equal female gametophytes called megaspores.

Double Fertilization

Plants reproduce by carrying out a process called double fertilization.

It's when microspores land on the stigma, it starts to germinate and grow
out a thin pollen tube down the style, that connects with the ovary. The
microspores divide into 2 sperm nuclei. one sperm goes with an egg
nucleus to make a zygote. Then the zygote will make a plant. While the
other sperm nucleus with two polar nuclei in the ovary making an
endosperm. The endosperm would be food for the plant made from the
other sperm.

Early Seedling Development

As soon as the seed starts to germinate, different parts of the plant

begins to develop. Cotyledon are first to appear out.For a short time they
keep all nutrients for the plants. Then comes the epicotyl which the tip of
the plant. This becomes stem and leaves. And finally last but not least the
hypocotyl, stem below cotyledon. This becomes the roots of the plants.A
well-defined embryonic root is referred as a radicle.
Plants in sexual reproduction gets triggered by photoperiodism which is
plants or flowers response in the change of daylight and darkness. This
makes plants fall into three groups: short-day plants, plants long-day
plants and day-neutral plants. Short-day plants  when plants require a
long period of darkness. They usually bloom in the summer or fall season
when the daylight is decreasing. Long-day plants mean that when plants
need short periods of darkness. They bloom in the spring and summer
when daylight is increasing.And finally day-neutral plants don't flower in
response to daylight changes at all, instead the temperature.

VegetativePropagation

Sometimes flower plants don't always reproduce through fertilization. They

can reproduce asexually. This is known as vegetation propagation. This
means to take part  of a parent plant (roots,stems, or leaves) to make
another plant. Example of this vegetative propagation are
Onions,Strawberries,Potatoes,Seedless oranges.

Tropical Tropisms

Have you notice why your plant have always looked to where the sun
is? Well this known as phototropism. Plant usually grow up and down,
meaning the branches of a tree grows up while the roots grow
downward to dirt(soil) looking for water. All of this action are tropisms of
the plants behavior. Tropisms is a turning response to a stimulus.Plants
have 3 common tropisms: Phototropism ,Gravitopism,
and Thigmotropism.
Gravitopism is to how plants respond to gravity. How they grow
away from gravity.And last but not least Thigmotropism is how plants
respond to touch. How neatly the plant grows on something else. All of
these response are initiated by hormones. The major plant hormone is
auxins.
Auxins provide many functions in. There the brains of the plants.
Other major hormones that help out the plant like:

gibberellins- promote stem elongation, especially in dwarf plants,

cytokinins-promote cell division and differentiation,
ethylene-Induces leaf abscission and promotes fruit ripening,
& abscisic acid-Inhibits leaf adscission and promotes bud and seed
dormancy.