CHAPTER

Morphogenesis and
6: Development of
Stems

BUENDIA | DELA CRUZ

 BUD
S
SCALY BUDS
N AKED BUDS
CHARACTERISTI
C: are thin walled and meristematic
• cells
KINDS:
• Branch bud – these are buds that
produce leaves and stems
• Flower bud – these are buds that
produce only flowers
• Mixed bud – buds that give rise to
flowers and seeds.
POSITION OF BUDS ON
STEM

Terminal bud
• Located at the tip of the stem
• Cells are meristematic
 POSITION OF BUDS ON
STEM

Axillary or lateral bud

• Found at regular intervals along the
stem
• Below each lateral bud, is a leaf scar
 POSITION OF BUDS ON
STEM

Adventitious bud
• Found not along the stem nor the
apex
• E.g. along veins of Begonia leaf
 POSITION OF BUDS ON
STEM

Accessory bud
• An extra buds coated in or near the
leaf axil
• E.g. young stems of red maple
 POSITION OF BUDS ON
STEM

Subpetiolar bud
• Found below the basal part of petiole
or leaf stalk, so that when the leaf
falls off, the bud becomes exposed.
 Arrangement of Buds on
stems
Alternate – a single bud is found at
each node of a stem
Opposite – two buds found at a
node
Whorled – several buds occur at
the node
 STEM
S
ACAULESC CAULESCE
ENT NT
General Structure of Stems
1. Nodes – position where leaves and buds are
attached
** Internodes – portion between two adjacent node
2. Buds
3. Leaf scar
4. Lenticels
• slightly raised areas on bark
• are opening in the periderm which provide a means
of communication between the external air and the
living cells of the bark beneath
• Function: passages for gases and watery vapor
from and to the active cells of the cortex beneath
5. Bud scales
• usually shed when the bud develops
• they leave scar
General Structure of Stems
 Direction of Stem Growth
1. Upright or Erect
2. Ascending – rising obliquely upward
3. Reclining – erect at first then bending over and
trailing upon the ground
4. Procumbent – lying wholly upon the ground
5. Decumbent – stem tracts and apex curves
6. Repent – creeping upon the ground and
upward
roots arises at nodes
Forms of Stems
1. Cylindraceous 2. Subcylindrical 3. Lerete

4. Compressed 5. Triquetrous 6. Quadrangular

7. Alate 8. Exfoliating 9. Obconical

10. Flexous 11. Turtuous 12. Truncate

 Herbs VS Trees VS Shrubs
Herbs
• plant whose stem does not become woody
and permanent

Tree
• perrenial woody plant of a very big size

Shrub
• perrenial woody plant of smaller stature
than a tree
 Histrology
Apical Meristem
• Dome 3shaped
Distinct Primary
masses of cell
Tissues:
Protoderm- Epidermis
Ground Meristem- Plith and
Cortex
Procambium- Primary Phloem
Characteristics:
and Xylem
Large Nuclei
Compact Cytoplasm
Small Vacuoles
 1. Epidermis
a) Single superficial layer of cells that cover all other
primary tissues
b) Function: protect them from drying out and
mechanical injury
c) Outer wall of cells exposed to air; coated with cutin
and or cuticle
 2. Cortex
-principal tissues of cortex:
Parenchyma – function: (1) storage of water (2)
photosynthesis (3) secretion
• Can differntiate into different cell types when the stem
is wounded
• Not only confined to the cortex and pith of stem
Collenchyma
• Outermost cells of the cortex of young stems
• Walls contain pectin and cellulose
• Function: strengthening tissue in young stems and
petioles of leaves
Sclerenchyma
• Walls are composed of lignin
• 2 types: (a) sclereid; (b) fibers – strengthening cells
• Function: support and protection
Secretory cells
 3. Primary phloem
Several types of cells
a) Sieve tube – function as conducting elements of
phloem that translocate sugars and other organic
solutes through out the plant body.
b) Companion cell – regulate the metabolic activity of
sieve tube members that have no nucleus
c) Sieve plate – a characteristic structural feature of
mature sieve tube members
d) Sieve cells – companion cells are lacking in
gymnosperms, these are the cells present with them
 4. Primary xylem
Conducting cells – function to conduct water and mineral
salts
a) Tracheids
b) Vessel elements – single unit
5. Pith and Pith Rays
Pith
• Characteristic – large celled parenchyma
• Function: storage of food
Pith rays
• a wide strip of parenchyma that separates primary
vascular bundles
• Function: stores food, conducts water. Mineral salts,
6. Vascular cambium
and food radially
produces secondary phloem and xylem
 Primary Growth
1. Dicotyledonous stem
2. Monocotyledonous stem
a) All procambium cells differentiate into primary xylem
and primary phloem
b) No vascular cambium

Secondary Growth
secondary growth is the growth that results from cell
division in the cambia or lateral meristems and that causes
the stems and roots to thicken, while
primary growth is growth that occurs as a result of cell
division at the tips of stems and roots, causing them to
elongate, and gives rise to primary tissue.
 Woody Stem
1 annual ring = amount of secondary xylem growth for
one season

PRODUCTION OF OTHER
MATERIALS BY STEMS
A. Mucilaginous substances e.g. gums
B. Tannins – substances that impart an astringents;
bitter taste to tissues
C. Latex – are milky secretions e.g. Rubber
D. Resins – e.g. turpentine
 STEM
MODIFICATIO
N
 1. Rhizomes
• refers to a creeping underground
stem sending off roots from its
lower surface and stems or
leaves from its upper surface
• Use: for propagation and
multiplication of the plant or
during dormancy

2. Corms
• refers to an underground stem
excessively thickened and solid and
characterized by the production of
buds from the center of the upper
surface and rootlets from the lower
surface.
• Use: propagation and multiplication
of the plant or during dormancy
 3. Bulb
• refers to a very short underground
stem accompanied by fleshy scales
• It’s for propagation and multiplication
of the plant
• Types:
a) tunicated bulbs – a bulb completely
covered by broad scales which from
concentric coatings (i.e. onion)
b) scaly bulbs – a bulb which have a
narrow, imbricated scales, the outer
ones not enclosing the inner (i.e. lilly)
4. Tubers
• refers to a short and excessively
thickened underground stem, borne
usually at the end of a slender, creeping
branch,buds. and having a numerous
“eyes” or axillary buds. (i.e. potato)
 5. Stem
Trendils
• are those which undergo
thread-like modification and
become sensitive to contact
of a side branch or other
object, coiling around it.
• Use: for support
6. Cladodes
• are shoot systems in which leaves
do not develop; rather,
the stems become flattened and
assume the photosynthetic
functions of the plant.
 7. Spines and
Thorns
• refers to indurated termination of a stem
tapering to a point

8. Stolons
• also known as runner refers to a
prostrate or reclining branch, the end
of which, on coming into contact with
the soil, takes root so giving rise to a

9. Cactoid
new plant

Stems
• are those in which reduced, condensed branches or stems
become swollen for water (and food) storage
 10. Scape
• refers to a stem rising from the
ground and bearing flowers but no
leaves (i.e. dandelion)

11. Bublbel or
• Bulbil
refers to a small, bulb-shaped, young
aerial shoot which serves as an organ
of vegetative multiplication by falling
off the stem and developing into a
new plant
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YOU!