Bean plant blog

I have come to realise that I’m no murderer. I never ended up killing Sprout and the new little guy. To my suprise the plants have shooted up quite a bit, maybe not as much as most, but they look good and healthy to me. The little guy has remained the little guy, he hasnt grown one bit. I think the reason for that is there isnt enough room in the pot, it probably would have been a good idea if I transplanted Shawty. I think if I has done that it would have grown alot bigger then it did, because it would have had more room. I can’t tell the two plants apart anymore! Though one is slightly taller than the other they look pretty identicle. The circumfrance of the stems seem to be about the same, and the blooming of new leaves is active on both plants. One plant is 5.9cm high, and the other is 5.5 cm high, my prediction is that the taller plant is Shawty. My aunt gave me a really good tip when it comes to watering the plants. She told me to use room temperature water and to poor a bit of it in the bottom of the saucer, so it can be sucked up through the holes of the bottom of the pot.

I never realised how much we rely on plants, and how much they do for us. Plants make food, only plants are able to convert light energy into food. Plants are responsible for all the food that animals and humans eat. The animals that provide us with meat (cows, chickens) eat grass, oats, and corn. Without plants, animals would starve. Plants make oxygen, plants make oxygen gas as they make food. As you know, oxygen is an important part of the air we breathe. We take in oxygen out of the air to keep our bodies alive, and plants produce it. Plants make, and preserve soil, roots help to keep the soil together which helps to reduce erosion, and plants help make soil. When a plant dies is decomposes, and that is put into the soil. Plants also progvide us useful products, plants can be used to make many useful things we need like good, fibres (clothes), and medicines.

Apples carry either the dominant allele ( A ) for red delicious apples and ( a ) for green granny smith , cross a homozygous dominant apple with a heterozygous apple. State its F1 genotypes and phenotypes.

Phenotype: 100% red apples
Genotypes: 2 – AA 2- Aa 0 – aa

AA A A
Aa

A AA AA

a Aa Aa

Plants can reproduce in two ways, sexually and asexually. When a plant reproduces asexually it uses rhizoids, fragmentation, or budding. Sexual reproduction is different then asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction has male and female plant organs. The female organs are the stigma, the style and the ovary. The stigma is a sticky part of the pistil that captures pollon. The style is long and skinny, and its job is to support the stigma. The ovary is made up of one or more ovules, and its job is to hold the eggs. The male plant structures include the filament, and the anther. The filaments job is to support the anther, and the anther is responsible for making, and storing pollon. Pollonation involves transferring pollon from the anther to the stigma, this is very important in plant reproduction. After pollonation one of the nuclei from the pollon grain makes a tube down through the style to reach the micropyle of the ovary. The second nuclei goes down the tube and splits into two sperm nuclei that fertilize the egg and mix with polar bodies to make the endosperm.

The atonomy of a plants vascular system is alot different then an animals circulatory system. The vascular tissues located inside the plant are split into two parts, the xylem and phloem. Xylem is close to the center of the plant, and its function is to transport water and minerals. It is made up of mostly dead cells and is closer to the outside of the plant. Its function is to move organic nutrients to the upper parts of the plant. The phloem and xylem can be compared to veins and arteries in an animals circulatory system, but instead of transporting blood flow they transport nutrients and water. Between the xylem and phloem there is a layer called the vascular cambium which is responsible for segregating the xylem and phloem. In phloem tissue there are elongated parenchyma cells, and located at the ends are sieve elements that connect to the cells to form the sieve tube. The purpose os the sieve tube is to transport carbohydrates in the plant. However without the help of companion cells, all the cellular functions of a seive tube would not work because the sieve tube is carried out by the tiny companion cells.

The functioning of respiration in plants and animals is pretty much the same. Oxygen is taken in and carbon dioxide is released. However, the structure and way it works is much different. Plants use photosynthesis to get oxygen directly out of the air, and from there sugars are produced to provide the plant energy. Plants exchange gases by making use of very small pores in their leaves that are called stomatas and they open and close when needed, almost as if the plant is breathing in and out , releasing gases and taking them in when needed. Unlike plants, animals have lungs that are responsible for exchanging gases instead of stomatas. When an animal breathes in muscles lower the diaphram and the ribs are raised. From there pressure forces air into the chest. When an animal breathes out the muscles relax and the air is released from the chest. As you can tell the resperatory stucture of plants and animals are alot different. Plants use stomatas (pore), and animals use their lungs. However the main function of intaking oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide is the same.

Monocots and dicots have a few differences, including: number of cotyledons, pollon structure, number of flower parts, and leaf veins. Monocots have an embryo with single cotyledon and dicots have an embryo with two cotyledons. Cotyledons are the “seed leaves” that are made by the embryo. The pollon structure in a monocot is single furrow (or pore), and dicots pollon has three furrows. This can be reffered to ass monosulate (monocot) and triporate (dicots). On a monocot you will see three petals or plant parts, and on dicots you will see five. The many large leaf veins in monocots run parallel through the leaf, and on dicots there are many auxillary veins which meet with the larger veins on the leaf.

Gymnosperms and Angiosperms have their similarities and differences. They are similar in the fact that they are both seed bearing plants that belong to the plant kingdom. Together they make up the spermatophytes or seed plants. Gymnosperm means “naked seed”, the seed of a gymnosperm are not covered by an ovule, and angiosperm seeds are. The group gymnosperms are known as softwoods and usually have needles that remain green all year round. Some examples include: pines, cedars, spruces, and firs. However some gymnosperms drop their leaves, they include: ginkgo, dawn redwood, and baldcypress. The group angiosperms are known as hardwoods and they usually contain leaves that change colour and die in the fall. Some examples of angiosperms are: oaks, maples, and dogwoods. However some angiosperms keep their leaves, they include: rhododendron, live oak, and sweetbay magnolia.

The root is the other main structure in a plant. The structure of a root begins with the epidermis. The epidermis is the thin outer layer of cells that absorb water and nutrients. Root hairs are formed by epidermal cells growing skinny projections. Root hairs help the root to absorb alot more than possible without, and since they branch out they help to collect minerals and water that would normally not be obtained. The cortex is located inside the epidermis and is a thick layer of loosely grouped parenchyma cells, it is responsible for being the path for water and minerals to pass through from the outside of the root to the vascular cylinder (centre). Roots are put into two categories: primary and secondary. Primary roots grow using apical meristems, and secondary growth has to do with growth in diameter. The two major functions of roots are absorbing water and nutrients, and keeping the plant body at ground. There are tons of different kinds of roots, some include: adventitious roots, aerating roots, aerial roots, coarse roots, fine roots, storage roots, and haustorial roots.

The stem is one of the two main structures of the plant. The stem contains nodes and internodes. Nodes are responsible for holding buds which grow into leaves, and the internodes separate one node from another. Stems usually contain three types of tissues: dermal tissue, ground tissue, and vascular tissue. Dermal tissue covers the outer part of the stem and protects and controls the exchange of gas. Grown tissue is made mostly of parenchyma cells and spreads in and around the vascular tissue. Vascular tissue provides transportation of nutrients and water and supports the stems structure. It also contains the xylem and the phloem. Some functions of the stem include: supporting the plant, holding leaves up towards the light (which can be hard in nature with other obsticals blocking the suns light), moves minerals and water through the xylem, moves sugar to the phloem, and stores water and starch used to make glucose. A few different types of plant stems include: dicot stems, monocot stems, gymnosperm stems, and fern stems. A big factor controlling stem growth is the leaves, they control the differentiation of procambium in stems. Another factor in stem growth is light.