Life Cycle of a Plant: Observation Day 8

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Observation Day 8

After leaving my plant for the long weekend, when I returned to school I had a great surprise. My plant was now significantly taller, with numerous axillary buds as well as healthy yellow flowers in the process of blooming. The Brassica Rapa has developed nodes that are very noticable, along with internodes; the space between nodes. My plant measured to be about 12 cm in height, which is a great change in comparison to the previous measurements of 4cm & 5cm. According to instructions by Mr Dunne, all yellow flowers that were visible were plucked off from my plant aswell as the axillary buds. This was done to help make my plant live longer by conserving its energy. My Brassica Rapa is still looking very healthy and is continuing its life cycle.

*Many of my classmates plants died at this stage in the life cycle.

A wooden stick was placed in the film canister in order to help balance the plant and allow it to stay upright.

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Related Information

Leaves:

Leaves:

Leaves are known as one of the major sites of photosynthesis.

Diagram of a plant:

Helpful Definitions:

Meristems: Area of a plant where some cells retain the ability to repeatedly by mitosis.

Aprical Meristems: Regions at the plants tips of all roots and shoots. Responsible for primary growth that throughout the life of the plant lengthens the shoots and roots.

Lateral Meristems: Cylindrical regions in roots and stems. The increased diameter of roots and shoots is the result of these.

Vascular Cambium: A lateral meristem that is responsible for producing new phloem and xylem tissue within the plant.

Photosynthesis: The process in which plants use chlorophyll to trap the energy from sunlight and use it to produce carbohydrates.

Primary Growth: All growth in the length of roots and stems that occur throughout the plants entire life and all growth in the diameter of roots and stems within the 1st year of the plants life.

Secondary Growth: Plant growth that takes place at lateral meristems which result in increased diameters of roots and stems in the second and subsequent years of a plants life.

Epidermis: The outer layer of a multicellular plant that experiences primary growth.

Periderm: A protective coating that replaces the epidermis in plants that live after its primary growth.

Axillary Bud: A new bud born on the axil of a leaf that will later on branch into a shoot or flower cluster.

Pollination: In flowering plants, pollen is transferred from the anther of the plant to the stigma, often by the wind or by insects such as bees. This process happens in order for plants to develop seeds later on in their life cycle.

Nodes: The location in which leaves are attached to the stem.

Internode: The space between two nodes on the same side of a plants stem.

Simple Leaf: A leaf that is not divided into two or more leaflets.

Compound Leaf: A leaf that is divided into two or more leaflets.

* see below image:

- all leaves in group a are simple leaves
- all leaves in group b are compound leaves.

( above information & pictures are a revised version from "Nelson Biology 11" textbook )