Pharmaceutical Botany With Taxonomy
Pharmaceutical Botany With Taxonomy
PATTERNS OF TISSUES
• Steles – younger and few older stems and roots
o Central cylinder is made up of primary
xylem, primary phloem, and pith
o Protostele
▪ Cannot see where the pith is
located
▪ Simplest form
▪ Consists of a solid core of
conducting tissues in which the
phloem usually surrounds the
xylem
▪ Common in primitive seed plants –
whisk ferns, club mosses
o Siphonosteles
▪ Looks like a donut
▪ Distinguishable pith
▪ Tubular with pith at center
• Cork cambium/Phellogen ▪ Common in ferns
o Seen when epidermis is at maturity o Eusteles
o Woody stems – while they age, lenticels ▪ Present day flowering plants and
(aids gas exchange) are seen behind the conifers
stomata ▪ Primary xylem and primary
▪ When bumps or protrusion is phloem are in discrete vascular
bundles
seen, lenticels are present
▪ Distinguishable pith
o Arises within the cortex or in some
instances develops from the epidermis or
phloem
o Produces box-like cork cells which are
impregnated with suberin
▪ waxy substance that makes the
cell impervious to moisture
o Cork cambium – may also produce
parenchyma-like phelloderm
VASCULAR TISSUES
• Monocot
o Pith is not seen
o Vascular bundles embedded throughout the
ground tissue
• Most dicots
o Single ring of vascular bundles embedded
in ground tissue
• Many non-flowering plants and few dicots
o Concentric cylinders of xylem and phloem
• Tubers
o Swollen regions of stems that store food for
subsequent growth
o Ex. potato
• Bulbs
o Large buds surrounded by numerous fleshy
leaves, with small stem at the lower end
o Ex. onions, lily, hyacinth, tulip
• Corms
o Resembles bulbs that differ from them in
being composed almost entirely of stem
tissue
o Except for the few papery scalelike leaves
sparsely covering the outside
o Ex. gladiolus, crocus
Bulbs Corms
Large buds Resembles
bulbs, but
composed of
stem tissue
Numerous Few papery
fleshy leaves scalelike leaves
Thorns and Succulent stems
• Cladophylls
o Flat, leaf-like stems modified for
photosynthesis
o Ex. orchids
• Tendrils and twinning shoots
o Coil around objects and help support the
plants
Searcher shoots and Cladophylls
o Main function: support system of plants
o Ex. Virginia creeper LEAVES
• Searcher shoots
o Stems with long internodes that mode in OVERVIEW
circles through the air • Most diverse of all plant organs
o Increase probability of contact with a • Come in different shapes and forms:
supportive o tubular, needle-like, feathery, cupped,
o Main function: support sticky, fragrant, smooth, or waxy
o Ex. honeysuckle
• Thorns PARTS
o Modified stems that protect plants from • Leaf buttress or leaf primordium
grazing animals o Earliest stage of leaf development
o Main function: defense mechanism of o Contains only 100 – 300 cells
plants ▪ Formed by cellular divisions – one
o Ex. bougainvillea to three cell layers which are
• Succulent stems found below the overlying
o Low surface-to volume ratio protoderm
ARRANGEMENT
Phyllotaxy – arrangement of leaves on a stem; independent
or regardless of leaf shape
• Spiral or alternate
• Petiole o One leaf per node
o Stalk of leaves at maturity • Whorled
o Composed of collenchyma and o Three or more (as many as twenty-five)
sclerenchyma leaves per node
• Blade or lamina • Opposite
o Has a network of veins (vascular bundles) o Two leaves per node
• Stipules
o Pair of leaf-like scale-like or thorn-like
appendages attaches to petiole
• Stipules
o Small, leaflike structures at the base of the
petiole
o Ex. sweet pea (photosynthesis), oat and
beech (protect the buds)
• Spines
o Leaves modified for protection
o Ex. cactus
• Bracts
o Floral leaves that form at the base of a
flower or flower stalk
• Cotyledons
o Ex. poinsettia, birds of paradise
o Embryonic leaves
o For storing energy used for germination
• Storage leaves
o Fleshy, concentric leaves modified to store
food • Prophylls
o First leaves to form on axillary buds and
they protect the axillary buds
• Flowerpot
o Packed tightly into a flowerpot-like
structure that catches falling water and
debris
o Epiphytes
▪ Plants that grow on other objects DEFENSE MECHANISMS
rather than the soil • Photosensitizers
o Plants that poison their attackers
• Plants that change the life cycles of their attackers
o Ecdysteroids and juvenile hormones –
regulate insect development
▪ When plants produce the
hormones and insects eat the
plants, life cycle is altered
• Insect-trapping leaves
• Plants that make themselves less digestive
o Modified for attracting, trapping, and
digesting animals • Plants that shift their resources
o Usually has sticky surfaces