Chapter 9 Plant Organization and Function

 Plants
- Mosses:
o Do not make seeds (they have spores)
o Do not have vascular tissue
o Must be very small (rely on diffusion of water)
- Ferns:
o Do not make seeds (have spores)
o Have vascular tissues  can grow large
- Gymnosperms: (conifers)
o Make seeds and make cones
o Ex: pine tree, spruce, larch, cedar
o Often these are evergreen except larch and tamarack
o Often these plants have needle leaves
- Angiosperms: (flowering plants)
o The most successful plants
o They have flowers, they make seeds, and fruits
 Plant organs:
- Roots:
o Typically, roots are just as extensive as above ground portion
o Anchor the plants
o Absorb water and minerals
o Produce hormones
o Store the products of photosynthesis
 carbs
- Stems:
o Main axis of plants
o Connect the roots to leaves
o Transport water, minerals, and nutrients between roots and
leaves
o Support
o Place the leaves in a good position for photosynthesis
o Sometimes the stem is photosynthetic
o Sometimes the stem stores water
- Leaves:
o Size and shape varies on their environment conditions
o Deciduous plants  they drop their leaves all at once during
the dry season
o Photosynthesis
o Some leaves have specialized function (cactus: for
protection), ex: climbing, water storage (succulent), capturing
insects (Venus flytrap)  source of nitrogen.
- Flowers:
 o For reproduction
o Aid in pollination
- Seeds:
o Next generation
o Contains:
 An embryo
 Food source
 Protective coat
- Fruits:
o Aid in seeds dispersal
o Ex: apple: animals eat it and poops it out
o Ex: for wind dispersal
o Ex: coconut, the outer layer lets them floats

 2 types of angiosperms based on the number of cotyledons

o “seed leaves”
o the first leaves to emerge from a seed
 Monocot  1 cotyledon
 pattern on the leaves = parallel
 Flower parts = 3’s
 Vascular bundles are scattered in stem (no secondary
growth)
 Ex. Grass, banana, corn, wheat, lily
 Eudicot  2 cotyledons
 Pattern on the leaves = net
 Flower parts = 4’s or 5’s
 Vascular bundles as in ring (secondary growth)
 Ex. Maple, oak, coleus, apple, cherry, bean

9.3 Plant tissues (p. 151 – 153)

 There are four types of tissues in plants:
1. Meristematic tissue = Growth tissue (areas of active cellular
division)
 Adds length and girth to plant
 Becomes epidermal tissue, ground tissue, or
vascular tissue
2. Epidermal tissue = Covers the plant (skin)
 Waxy cuticle smooth
o Prevents water loss
o Protection from insects, fungi, etc...
 Root hairs
o Extensions from the cells on roots to
increase the surface area for increased
water absorption
  Trichomes
o Hairs on the surface of leaves and stems
o Blocks the wind
o Prevents water loss
o Toxins for protection from herbivores
o Guard cells
 2 cells that surround each stoma
 Stomata are pores in leaves that allow
gas exchange
 Guard cells open and close stomata
o Periderm
 Part of
 Protection
3. Ground tissue = Makes up bulk of plant
 Parenchyma cells
o Least specialized
o For photosynthesis and storage
 Colenchyma cells
o Thick cell wall
o Support
 Sclerenchyma cells
o Thick cell wall with lignin
o Support
o Mostly NON-LIVING cells
4. Vascular tissue = Transport tissue
 Xylem
o Water and minerals from roots to leaves –
One way
o Non-living and hollow – continuous tube
from roots to stomata in leaves
 Phloem
o Sugars and organic compounds in both
directions
 Products of photosynthesis and
hormones
o Living cells

9.4 Organization of leaves (p.154-155)

 Structure of leaves
- Trichomes
- Waxy cuticle
 - Vascular bundles
o Xylem and Phloem
o Leaf veins
- Guard cells around stomata
- Loosely packed cells inside
o For gas exchange

 Leaf diversity
- Blade can be Simple (single) or compound (divided into leaflets)
- Arrangement can be Alternate, Opposite, or Whirled

Leaf Modifications
 Larger in shade
 Reduced leaves to prevent water loss (Ex. Cactus)
 For protection (ex. Spines on cactus)
 For holding moisture (Ex. Succulent plants)
 For climbing (ex. tenchils)
 For catching insects (Ex. Sundew, venus flytrap)
- As a source of nitrogen
- Live in areas where nitrogen is unavailable
o Nitrogen is required for amino and nucleic acids

9.5 Stems (p. 156)

 Stems
- Terminal bud
- Apical meristem dividing cells
- Protected by bud scales modified leaves
- Add length to the stem
o Adding length  primary growth
 Leaf scar
- Where last year’s leaf dropped off
 Axillary bud
- Can give rise to branches or flowers

 Stems contain vascular tissue

 Between xylem & phloem is the vascular cambium
- Vascular cambium  type of Lateral meristem
o Lateral meristem  adds girth to stem
 “Secondary growth”

 Herbaceous Stems
- Non-woody stems
 - No wood
- No secondary growth
- Still have vascular bundles arranged in a ring if a plant is a
Eudicot
- Monocot Do not make wood
o Vascular bundles are scattered
o No well defined pith on inside

 Woody stems
- Both primary and secondary growth (increases girth = wood)
- Secondary growth arises from lateral meristems
1. Cork cambium
 Makes cork which together with phloem is the bark
- Bark = cork + phloem
 Adds new cells together towards outside only
2. Vascular cambium
 Makes xylem and phloem
 Xylem accumulates year after year to make wood
 Adds new cells towards inside (xylem) and outside
(phloem)
- Girdling = removing the bark all around the tree, resulting death
of a tree

 Annual tree rings

- Only outer layers of xylem transport water (sapwood)
- Inner layers of xylem do not transport water (heartwood)
- Paleodendrochronologist
o Scientists researching tree rings
 Big tree rings = good growing season

 Stem diversity
- Stolons or runners
o Stems that grow horizontally above the surface of ground
o Con produce new plants
o Ex. Strawberry, spider plant

- Rhizomes
o Horizontal underground stems

- Tubers
o Enlarge rhizomes for carbohydrate storage
o Ex. Potato
 - Corms
o Underground stem
o Thickened with thin leaves covering it

- Succulent stems
o Store water
o Ex. Cactus

- Tendrils
o Modified stems for climbing

9.6 Organization of Roots (p. 162-164)

 Root Cap
- Protects apical meristem
- Sacrificial
o Sloughed off as the root grow through soil
 Apical meristem
- Adds new cells (primary growth)
 Epidermis
- Outer later, single layer of cells, root hairs
 Cortex
- Loosely packed to allow water and minerals in between the cells
- Water also enters through the cells via the root hairs

 Endodermis
- Single layer, tightly packed, boundary between cortex and
vascular tissue, Casparian strip, all water and minerals must pass
through these cells
- Checkpoint
- Plant controls water coming in
 Vascular tissue
- Xylem
o Transport water upward
- Phloem
o Transport sugar and other things throughout the plant
- Transport tissue

Root diversity and specializations

 Taproot
- Grows straight down, often fleshy for storage
 Fibrous root system
- No single main root
 Adventitious roots
- Develop from stem
 - Ex. Prop roots on corn
 Pneumatophores
- Mangroves, project out of water to get oxygen for cellular
respiration
 Haustoria
- Parasitic plants, penetrate vascular tissue of host to steal
 Mycorrhizae
- Symbiosis of roots and fungi
 Root nodules
- Contain N-fixing bacteria

9.7
 Water uptake and transport
- Osmosis of water
- Diffusion of minerals
- Active transport (ATP)
- Root pressure pushes water upwards to ~10m
- Cohesion-Tension Modal (cohesive  ability to pull/attract)
o Xylem forms a continuous tube from roots to leaves
o Water cohesive
o Transpiration = evaporation from stomata that provides
tension to pull water upward
 Opening and closing of stomata
- Stomata are bordered and controlled by guard cells
- Stomata is important for gas exchange and transpiration

- Open stomata
o Potassium ion is pumped into guard cells
o Water follows by osmosis
o Increases turgor pressure inside of cell wall of cellulose
o Cell wall of guard cells has unequal thickening (thicker on
inside)
o Guard cells curve opening stomata

- Close stomata
o Potassium ion pumped out
o Water follows turgor pressure decreases
o Guard cells return to normal shape
o Stomata closes

 Mineral uptake and transport

- Epiphytes “Air Plants”
o Roots absorb moisture from air
 - Parasitic plants
o Haustoria
- Carnivorous plants
o Capture and digest insects
- Symbiotic relationships
- Root Nodules
o Roots infected with N-fixing Rhizobium bacteria
- Mycorrhizae
o Roots and fungi
o Increases Surface area and breaks down organic material
around roots
o Plant provides amino acids and sugars

 Organic Nutrient Transport

- Phloem transports nutrients to parts of plant that need them
- Pressure-Flow Model of Phloem Transport
o From ‘source’ to ‘sink’