Day 3: Like last years 30 Days Wild, Mondays will be Close Up Mondays. Where I take one species and delve closer.
Today’s Close Up is the anatomy of a plant. I remember in secondary school (a long time ago) being taught parts of a plant such as the petal and the stamen. So, I thought I would revisit this topic.
The plant structure I am focusing on is a flowering plant or angiosperm. According to Britannica.com angiosperms make up 80% of all plants on the planet. A flowering plant is made up of roughly six sections (though plants such as mosses don’t follow the traditional structure):
Roots, Stems, Leaves, Flowers. Fruit. Seeds
Roots: are designed to pull water and nutrients from the soil.
Stems: like roots, deliver water and nutrients to other parts of the plant. There are more complex parts to the stem which I won’t delve into here.
Leaves: capture sunlight which then turn into sugars as energy for the plant, this is called photosynthesis. Leaves also absorb CO2 and undertake a process of transpiration by absorbing water from the underside of leaves.
Flowers: are the sex organ of a plant. Flowers usually have both male and female parts. The stamen (anther) is the male structure which produces pollen and the pistal is the female. The pistal has two parts, carpel (the ovary – where seeds originate from) and the stigma (where the pollen is received). Petals often attract pollinators, such a bees and birds to the plant for pollination. Pollination is the transference of pollen from the male stamen to the female stigma.
Anatomy of a flower
Fruit: develop when a flower has been pollinated. Fruits are a way a plant can spread its seed. Examples of fruit are berries, apples and rosehips.
Seeds: are the embryo of the plant and come in all shapes and sizes. They are dispersed by various ways such as by the wind or by animals. Examples being acorns and cones.
I hope you enjoyed this concise review of the anatomy of a flowering plant? If you have any comments do post them below. I’ve also included links to helpful websites which I used to compile this post.
Thanks for reading, and stay wild!
Christine x
Informative websites for further reading:
Biology4kids: a helpful, wide overview on flowering plants
Ducksters.com: digestible information on the anatomy of flowering plants. Even has a quiz you can test yourself found here.
Enchanted Learning: a good start for plant anatomy
The Eden Project: a useful inforgram on pollination
Christine Lucas 