I'M A SURVIVOR.

Some may say that i'm a terrible mother because only one of my kids survived...but I think i'm a wonderful mother. My babies just couldn't adapt to their environment.

Here are Babu's latest pictures:

So proud of you dear babu pea. 

Love mommy <3

Family Relationships

Monocotyledons

• It only has one seed leaf.
• New roots arise from aborted radicles.
• The first shoot that emerges from monocot plants is  epicotyl, this is where the first leaves and shoots emerge.
• Monocots have a distinctive arrangement of vascular tissue known as an atactostele in which the vascular tissue is scattered rather than arranged in concentric rings. 

Examples:

corn

wheat

ginger

banana

sugarcane

Dicotyledons

• They have two seed leaves.
• Their roots grow from apical meristem  and the radicle.
• Many dicots have epigeal emergence. This is where the hypocotyl elongates and becomes arched in the soil.
• In dicots, the hypocotyl  appears to be the base under the spent withered cotyledons, and the shoot just above that is the epicotyl. 

Examples:

figs

celery

beans 

pease

Reproduction

Asexual Reproduction: 

To reproduce asexually, plants use rhizoids, fragmentation, or budding. Strawberries, crab grass, and Bermuda grass are examples of plants that reproduce with rhizoids. The creeping Charlie is an example of a plant that reproduces through fragmentation. The banana is an example of a plant that reproduces through budding.

Sexual Reproduction:

Sexual reproduction in plants involves male and female plant organs. The female structures invovled in sexual reproduction are the stigma, the style and the ovary. The stigma is the sticky portion of the pistil that captures pollen. The style is long and slender and supports the stigma. The ovary is composed of one or moreovules and is responsible for housing the eggs. The male structures involved in sexual reproduction are the filament and the anther. The filament supports the anther which is responsible for storing and producing pollen. Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther to a stigma. Wind, water, insects, birds, and small mammals all aid in the pollination of plants. After pollination, one nuclei of the pollen grain forms a tube down through the style to the micropyle of the ovary. The second nuclei travels down the tube and splits into two sperm nuclei that fertilize the egg and combine with polar bodies to form the endosperm (stored fruit). 

Life Cycle

Life cycle of corn (Zea mays), a monocot. The vegetative plant represents the diploid sporophyte generation. Meiosis occurs in the male and female flowers, represented by the tassels and ears, respectively. The haploid microspores (male spores) develop into pollen grains, and the single surviving haploid megaspore (female spore) divides mitotically to form the embryo sac (megagametophyte). The egg forms in the embryo sac. Pollination leads to the formation of a pollen tube containing two sperm cells (the microgametophyte). Finally, double fertilization results in the formation of the diploid zygote, the first stage of the new sporophyte generation, and the triploid endosperm cell.

A bean seed grows quickly into a bean plant. It is one of the fastest growing plants. After the bean is planted in the soil, it takes only a week for it to germinate. The bean plant is fully grown in six weeks. Its seeds drop into the soil or are planted there, and the life cycle begins again.

Food Delivery

Roots help with the delivery of nutrients.

Translocation: Is the transfer of soluble materials through sieve tubes of the phloem of vascular plants.  An example is when a plant produces sucrose it uses translocation to distribute it throughout the plant.

Phloem: It is the food-conducting tissue of plants. Vascular plant tissue consisting of living cells arranged into elongates tubes that transport sugar and other organic nutrients throughout the plant.

Nutrient & Water Delivery

Transpiration/turgor pressure: Turgor Pressure is used to maintain rigid stems by absorbing water and expanding the vacuoles in the cells and pushing against the cell walls to make it rigid
Transpiration is when water vapor is lost from the leaves by opening of the stomata.

Vascular tissue: What allows the plants to move water and food throughout the plant

Xylem: A tissue that is made of dead cells and transport water up from the roots to the leaves by using adhesion.

Stomata/guard cells: Pores with guard cells that can close or open allowing carbon dioxide, water, and oxygen out of the plant.

Soil contributes to plant growth because all of the nutrients are found there and water is transported from there.

Casparian strip: is used to block passive transport of materials to other parts of the plants. 

Growth Explained

Shoot & Root growth: Plants have three types of root systems: taproot, with a main taproot that is larger and grows faster than the branch roots. The fibrous root is where all the roots are the same size. The adventitious roots form on any other plant part other than the roots. 

Meristem: A region of plant tissue consisting of actively dividing cells that forms new tissue. This allows the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen. It permits the growth of stems and roots. It transports sugar and water and attracts pollinators to a plant. 

Primary/secondary growth: Primary growth occurs at the apical mersitems where the structure is elongated. Secondary growth is an increase in the thickness of the shoots and roots of a vascular plant as a result of the formation of new cells in the cambium. While primary growth is elongated, secondary growth is increased in width. 

Vascular & cork cambium: The vascular cambium is the cambium present in between the xylem and phloem of a vascual bundle. The cork cambium is the tissue in the stem of a plan that gives rise to cork on its outer surface and a layer of cells containing chlorophyll on its inner surface. The cork cambium develops outside the vascular tissues while the vascular cambium is a remnant of the apical meristem.

Hormones involved: The auxin is a plant hormone that causes the elongation of cells in shoots and is involved in regulating plant growth. It regulates root formation, bud growth, and fruit and leaf drop. The cytokinin is produced by the roots and traveling upward through the xylem. It promotes tissue growth, budding, and on application, retard plan senescence. 

Tropism: My plant exhibited phototropism in which it grew toward the direction of sunlight because it was placed on my bedroom window sill. 

This is said window sill that babu the pea lived...all by himself. 

REST IN PEACE

SAD NEWS!!!!

I believe Canice corn seed is dead. 

I also think that poor darlene isn't going to grow either.

She's healthy and watered and has sun...but no progress. :(

Young Plant Structure & Function

Corn Young Plant 

Bean Young Plant

Terminal bud: An undeveloped shoot that is located at the tip of the stem. This helps in the elongation of the main axis that helps the vertical growth of the plant. 

Node/Internode: The node is the part of the stem of the plant from which leaves, branches, and aerial roots emerge. The internode is the distance between each node. 

Axial buds: A bud that develops in the axil of a leaf of a plant. These buds develop from the nodes which then becomes a new stem. These buds can develop into a stem or flower. It is an embryonic shoot that lies at the junction of the stem and petiole of a plant.

Coleoptiles: A protective sheath enclosing the shoot tip and embryonic leaves of grasses. It protects the shoot tip and embryonic leaves.

Adventitious/tap root: Roots growing underground that lacks buds, leaves, or nodes. It absorbs water and mineral salts and usually anchors the plant to the ground.

Primary/lateral root: The primary root is the first root produced by a germinating seed, developing from the radicle of the embryo. Lateral roots extend horizontally from the primary root and serve to anchor the plant securely in the soil. 

Root hairs: Root hairs are a large number of microscopic outgrowths from the outer layer of cells in a root. The root hairs absorbs water and mineral salts in the soil. 

Leaf: The physical platform for the process of photosynthesis. The cells in the leaf contain chloroplasts that contain chlorophyll. The chlorophyll converts carbon dioxide into simple glucose sugars in the presence of sunlight. This food is used by the plant to grow and reproduce. 

Cuticle & Dermal Tissue: The cuticle tissues are a protective waxy covering produced only by the epidermal cells of leaves and young shoots. The cuticle tends to be thicker on the top leaves. It conserves water, reduces absorption of carbon dioxide by the plant and reduces transpiration. Dermal tissue is the protective outer layer of the plant. It is made up of dead parenchyma cells which makes up the outer bark in woody plants. 

Baby Blues

BABU IS SPROUTING! 

Germination

Germination: The process whereby seeds or spores sprout and begin to grow. In order to grow properly the seed needs to undergo a period of dormancy where it rests. After the resting period, the seed is ready to germinate but after a certain period, the seed will ‘expire’ and will no longer germinate. Soil moisture is needed to trigger germination. The seed is imbibed by the seed coat and the enzymes become active. Soil temperature should be warm. Light and soil texture do not matter during germination. 

Seed Structure & Function

 Beans (dicot)

Corn Kernel (monocot)

I was so eager to plant my babies that I forgot to take pictures of them as a seed! 

Embryo: The rudimentary plant usually contained in the seed. This seed contains enough nutrition for the new plant to use until it sprouts and begins to make its own food through photosynthesis. 

Cotyledon: An embryonic leaf in seed-bearing plants, one or more of which are the first leaves to appear from a germinating seed. It provides energy and nutrients for the developing seedling. (Also called, a seed leaf)

Endosperm: The part of a seed that acts as a food store for the developing plant embryo, usually containing starch with protein and other nutrients. The endosperm nourishes the developing embryo in the seed. 

Welcome Babies!

My babies in their soil pots. From left to right (Canice corn, Darlene dicot & Babu the black eyed pea)

Missy the kidney shaped bean was born first.

Followed by Canice corn.

and Babu black eyed pea was born last