Plant Observation Journal: Vegetative Morphology

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Introduction ~

I am Kametchi Anne Blancaflor, a 19 year-old, first-year Bachelor of Science in Biology student at the University of the Philippines – Visayas. One interesting fact about me is that I am half Filipino and half Brazilian-Japanese. My hobbies include singing, playing the guitar, recording music, watching movies and series, and playing online games. I live in Pontevedra, Capiz, Philippines, home of the Guyum-guyuman Festival and is the Mud Crab Capital of the Province. This journal will showcase various plants and their vegetative morphology. It will also explain how they relate to the life functions of plants and discuss their implications to human well-being and the environment, which I have learned throughout weeks seven to ten of my Botany 111 Lab course. I spent most of my time observing the plants presented here in my locality, Barangay Ilawod, located alongside Panay River- the longest river in Panay Island and is one of the urban barangays of the municipality of Pontevedra- a coastal municipality. There are no mountains in the area, only plains. There are only two seasons each year here: rainy, from June to November, and dry, from December to May. According to some old folks, every time the barangay becomes flooded, it will almost look like a sea because about 90% of the land is submerged in floodwater, thus the name “Ilawod” from the root word “lawod,” which means “sea.” Barangay Ilawod celebrates its annual religious fiesta every 24th day of June to honor our patron saint John the Baptist. Its highlights include the fluvial parade, mass baptism, and “bashanay sa karsada”. Most of the residents are into aquaculture, buying and selling of aquaculture products, selling dry goods, and fishing. Generally, the plants that constitute the vegetation around my area are flowering plants; most are potted, some are shrubs and herbs, and there are only a few trees. The primary source of the specimens reported in this journal is our own and our neighbors’ plant gardens.

Part I. Plant Habit, Habitat and Duration

My most important learning from this topic is: BANANAS and PALMS like coconut ‘trees’ are NOT TREES because they do not have secondary growth; what we perceive as their trunk are are actually their pseudostem and stem, respectively. Also, I long have known that bamboos are not trees but I just learned from this topic that BAMBOOS are GRASSES. Oh how I love studying biology!

Plants are considered the ecosystem’s primary producers. Humans are no exception to the rule that all forms of life rely on the primary producer for food. Humans, like all living things, require plants to survive. Knowing about a plant’s life cycle, habitat, and habits allows us to locate, understand, and use the plants that we value, particularly for food, medicine, industry, and the economy. It will also give some light on how a plant influences its environment and how it affects all living beings in an ecosystem, including people. A plant’s specific habitat enables researchers to learn how the plant has evolved to diverse environments and how it responds to unfavorable ecological conditions. Plants, therefore, play a crucial function in the environment.

Perennial Herbs

Both plants presented above are dicots and are used in my household and community as ornamental plants. We also sometimes use the leaf extract of Coleus scutellarioides to treat wounds.

Type of Rootstock:
Coleus scutellarioides: fleshy or tuberous.
Caladium bicolor: rhizome.

Epiphytic Plants

Epiphytic plants, also called epiphytes, are plants that grow on another plant or object for physical support, without being a parasite. Pyrrosia lanceolata and Pyrrosia piloselloides are both epiphytes and monilophytes.

Plants that are Vines

A & B: Cissus assamica ; C: Ficus pumila

Cissus assamica has a climbing stem; it grows upward by means of tendrils, petioles, or adventitious roots. Ficus pumila has a clambering stem- sprawling across objects, without climbing structures.  Both species are aerial- remain above the ground, and herbaceous.

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Part II. Roots

I have learned from this topic the different kinds of roots and root modifications as well as their functions in relation to the plant’s classification, habit, and habitat. Another important learning I got from this topic is the function of the endodermis and the casparian strip in relation to the general function of a root, which is to regulate the flow of water and nutrients that enters the vascular tissues, only allowing nutrients to be absorbed and preventing toxins to get in. With this, I am curious if casparian strips are also present in aerial roots or even organs. If so, what is its physiological function?

The word adventitious by itself means happening by chance rather than by inherent nature. This relates to the meaning of adventitious in the context of plant roots since adventitious roots develop not from the inherent radicle or root tissue, but from other plant organs. Plants that have adventitious roots have an advantage over those that have conventional root systems. Since the plant can sprout roots from sections of the plant that are not real roots, it can extend and propagate itself in a variety of ways. Its chances of survival and ability to develop and expand improve as a result. Adventitious roots are being used, in our case in my community, for cloning and propagating a variety of plants through grafting, root sowing, layering, etc. Since the stems already have roots, the process is simpler than rooting terminal growth.

As I browse through our kitchen and garden, I observed a lot of root vegetables like onion, garlic, and potato, but technically they are not roots. The only roots I saw our family uses for consumption as food or medicine are the carrots and ginger. We use ginger as medicine by adding it to tea, sometimes we add chopped ginger to a boiling water and inhale the steam to relieve us from colds, nausea, migraines and headaches.

Root Structural Types

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Part III. Stems

The terms: “sporophyte axis”; “stem” and “shoot” are related because the shoot constitutes the parts of the plant that grows above the soil, which includes the stem, and the sporophyte axis is the central column of the sporophyte, which means that the stem is a sporophyte axis. The stem is the stalk supporting a fruit, flower, or leaf, and plays an important role in transporting water and nutrients between the roots and the shoots, storing food, and producing new living tissue. The “sporophyte axis,” “stem,” and “shoot” are parts of the plant that mainly develops from plumule and grow upward. Some stems however, are modified and resembles other plant parts. In the case of bryophytes, they lack true stems, though they have cells that perform these general functions; and in seedless vascular plants, their sporophyte axis are not their true stem, they have creeping stems that grow underground.

The lateral or terminal protuberance on the stem of a vascular plant that may develop into a flower, leaf, or shoot is called a bud. Buds arise from meristematic tissue. The bud generally occurs at the tip of the stem or the axial region of the leaf. Each bud consists of outer and inner leaves, nodes and internodes, and secondary buds. These parts of the bud are capable of forming shoots from a highly compressed region (Costes, et. al., 2014).

A Shoot with Buds

The Cabbage

The cabbage (repolyo) that we consume in our households is the bud of the plant
Brassica oleracea var. capitata.

A rootstock is a stem of a plant that is either located on the soil surface or underground which has nodes that produce shoots or roots. A rootstock is important to the lives of the plants that produce them since it is able to store starches and proteins which enable the plant to survive harsh unfavorable seasons underground. In agriculture, rootstocks can be applied to determine the efficiency of orchards. Rootstocks can also be practically used in the propagation process. This is done by inserting an interstem between the scion and the rootstock through a process known as grafting.

Rootstocks used in my household include:
Ginger: It is used to add flavor to our dishes and for medicinal purposes.
Onion: for consumption.
Garlic: for consumption, and sometimes for medicinal use.

The Onion

Unlike other plants, the parts of the onion are compressed in a bulb. Its leaves are fleshy and its roots are at the base of the compressed stem, all of which grows underground.

The Ginger

The rhizome of ginger differs from the typical stem of a plant because it works underground and it stores food for the leaves and the roots. Also, from these underground stems, new branches of the plant grow.

Phenotypic plasticity refers to an organism’s ability to change in response to external stimuli or inputs. The reaction might be adaptive or non-adaptive, and it might involve a change in morphology, physiological condition, or behavior, or some combination of these, at any level of organization, with the phenotype including all of an organism’s features other than its genes. It is vital to plants because it will allow them to survive in the face of unpredictable environmental stress by allowing them to change their phenotype in order to prevent extinction and eventually diversify. This ability of organisms has significant ecological implications, which, in turn, have further evolutionary effects (West-Eberhard, 2008; Pfennig, 2016).

Stem Types: (Classification based on habit, direction of growth, or position)

• A plant with decumbent (or ascending) direction of growth

• A plant with clambering direction of growth

Before learning about the stems, through this journal and our laboratory activity, I never knew that there were a lot of stem types and modifications. I discovered stem types that I never viewed as stems before, like the rhizome of a ginger. or the stem of the onion bulb, as well as the different classifications of stems based on their habit, direction of growth, and position.

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Part IV. Leaves

A leaf is a flattened structure of a higher plant, typically green and blade-like, that is attached to a stem directly or via a stalk. Leaves are the main organs of photosynthesis and transpiration.

Leaves are distinct from roots and stems because they occur on the sides of stems in a regular arrangement with one or more strands of vascular tissue visible as veins, and they have determinate growth. Also, the upper and lower regions of a leaf often differ in their anatomy.

Additional Leaf Structures

A typical leaf consists of a blade or lamina with veins, a midrib, a base, and a petiole. However, there are leaves that have evolved additional structures, each with their own functions such as:

 Stipule – to protect the bud and young leaves, in some plants it carries out photosynthesis.
 Pulvinus – enables the leaf to change in the orientation or position through losing water in it or by gaining water, thereby helps the leaves be in the bet position for growth.
 Ligule – protection and support.
 Leaf sheath – protection and support.

 Stipule

Definition: either of a pair of small, usually leaflike appendages borne at the base of the petiole in many plants.

Specimen: Unidentified

Type of stipule: Basal – attached near the base of the petiole.

 Pulvinus

Definition: a swelling at the base of a petiole.

Specimen: Phyllanthus sp.

Additional notes: The specimen has pinnately compound leaves.

 Ligule

Definition:  a thin appendage of a foliage leaf.

Specimen: Indian Head Ginger, Costus sp.

Additional notes: The specimen has shiny, red, round-tipped, egg-shaped to cone-like inflorescences at the stem tips. It is perennial and exists as a shrub.

 Leaf Sheath

Definition: A structure at the base of a leaf’s petiole that partly surrounds or protect the stem or another organ that it subtends.

Specimen: Dracaena sanderiana

Additional notes: The plant has simple leaves. The shape of which is lance-ovate, its apex narrowly acute, and its margin entire.

Leaf Modifications/Structural Types

There are additional leaf structures that play numerous more roles such as are sharp, protective structures like spines and tendrils that support climbing. There are also storage leaves can be non-photosynthetic and modified. Some carnivorous plants have leaves designed to capture prey in low nutrition situations.

Through this part of the journal, I discovered many things about leaves that I have never even thought of before. I learned about the different additional leaf structures and modifications that I did not know that were also leaves. For example, the bract of bougainvillea, I thought before was a petal; and the scales of the ginger rhizome, I never thought that they were actually leaves.

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Part V. Local Plants with Distinguishable Vegetative Characters: Practical Identification

Family Arecaceae

The Arecaceae or Palm Family distinguishes itself by its huge, sheathing, plicate leaves, fleshy and drupaceous fruits, and a rhizomatous, lianeous or arborescent stem.

Family Cyperaceae

Members of the Family Cyperaceae or the Sedges are distinct in bearing a sedge spikelet inflorescence with a central axis bearing sessile distichous or spiral bracts and tristichous phyllotaxy.

Family Poaceae: Subfamily Bambusoideae

The distinguishing feature of the bamboos are their dense, strong, and tall stems, which are ringed, known as culms, that usually hollow between the rings or nodes, and grow in branching clusters from a thick underground stem or rhizome.

Family Poaceae: Rest of the members (the typical grasses)

The rest of the members of Family Poaceae are distinguishable in being herbs with open-sheathed, distichous leaves with a ligule, the inflorescence is a grass spikelet, and the fruit a caryopsis (grain).

Family Orchidaceae

Orchids are distinctive in being epiphytic perennial herbs having biseriate periath (homochlamydeous), and zygomorphic flowers.

Family Cucurbitaceae

Members of Family Cucurbitaceae are distinctive in being vines with simple, palmately veined and/or lobed leaves, with tendrils, and the fruit a berry, pepo, capsule, or samara.

Genus Caladium

Members of Genus Caladium are distinctive in their leaf shape and variegated leaf color. The plants of this genus are either fancy-leafed, which have large heart-shaped leaves or lance-leafed, which have narrow, elongated leaves. The color combinations for this plant include white, pink, rose, red, burgundy, chartreuse, and green. Plants of this genus are great ornamental plants to have at homes because of the eye catching colors and shapes of their leaves and they’re easy to grow and maintain.

Genus Allium

Allium species are herbaceous perennials and are distinguishable of producing their flowers on scapes and producing bulbs, some of which are borne on rhizomes.

Genus Rhizophora

Genus Rhizophora or the mangroves are distinguishable for their stilt roots or prop roots, smooth and thin on small trunks, the leaves thick and leathery, which are oppsosite and have an elliptic shape with two stipules each leafpair, and the flowers small and inconspicuous, that are usually white and yellow in color.

Genus Codiaeum

Members of the Genus Codiaeum or the Croton plants are distinguishable for their large, thick, leathery leaves that may be linear, lance to oval shaped, with a smooth or lobed margin, and some are wavy or twisted into a spiral. Another distinguishable characteristic of crotons are their wide variety of colors that range from green, variegated, yellow, red, orange, cream, pink, and black to a combination of all these.

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Part VI. Concluding Statements

The COVID-19 pandemic has really took a toll on everyone; and to us students and teachers in particular, teaching, learning, and reaching out was made difficult especially to those who have laboratory classes. For me, this journal was a very fun and engaging way to help us students learn about plants and personally, it helped me clear my mind and keep sane in this situation every time I go out and find plants in nature. I get excited to go to places and find specific plants or plant parts because I look at it like an adventure, and imagine that I’m Dora the explorer (no joke), the list of plants that I’m looking for is my map, and inside my backpack are my ruler, tapes measure, and camera phone. Although I enjoyed all of the topics, what I especially enjoyed the most is the topic on leaves since I learned a lot of things that I did not know before and sometimes it was confusing because there are some structures that can be the same thing like the stipules which can be tendrils or spines. If I were to suggest some improvements for our laboratory assessments, that would be to give more resources to use about the topics. But all in all, the topics have widened my understanding about plants and I will never view them the way I look at them before; it’s like, every plant has their own interesting personality and I would really love to know them.

References:

Costes, E., Crespel, L., Denoyes, Bã., Morel, P., Demene, M.-N., Lauri, P.-E., & Wenden, Bã. (2014). Bud structure, position and fate generate various branching patterns along shoots of closely related Rosaceae species: a review. Frontiers in Plant Science, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2014.00666

Davies Jr, F. T., & Hartmann, H. T. (1987, September). The physiological basis of adventitious root formation. In International Symposium on Vegetative Propagation of Woody Species 227 (pp. 113-120).

Pfennig, D. W. (2016). Ecological Evolutionary Developmental Biology. Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Biology, 474–481. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-800049-6.00143-8

Simpson, M. G. (2019). Plant systematics. Academic press.

West-Eberhard, M. J. (2008). Phenotypic Plasticity. Encyclopedia of Ecology, 2701–2707. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-008045405-4.00837-5