Parts of Plants

As collective members of the ecosystem, we all come in contact with plants in our daily lives. Plants form the most vital and most essential components of our environment. Plants, just like human beings, are living organisms that require food, water, and sunlight to live. Moreover, like human beings, they grow old and die, they are made up of cells and most importantly, they are equally reactive. Just like human beings, their physical structure also consists of different parts. Each of those parts has a separate function to fulfil. Without those parts, it would not be possible for a plant to live.

The above discussion is bound to give rise to an important question- Where do plants come from? The answer to this question is seeds. Plants basically germinate from seeds by getting the right amount of air, water, and sunlight. Another essential question about plants would be – What do plants need to grow? At the very basic level, the answer would be the three most important components for any living being to survive- air, water, and sunlight. However, the right proportion of each of the following components is what drives the growth of plants. For example, when plants are planted in the soil with a proper amount of exposure to sunlight, then only they can grow. 

Any eukaryote belonging to the taxonomic kingdom Plantae is referred to as a plant. Plants are embryophytes, which include vascular plants, liverworts, hornworts, and mosses in the strictest meaning. Green algae were considered a plant in certain less strict references. Green algae include both unicellular and multicellular species with chlorophylls and cell walls. 

Plant Ecology

Plants can synthesize their own food by combining light energy, atmospheric carbon dioxide, and hydrogen atoms. Nonetheless, the waste that animals exhale during breathing is one source of CO2. They give off oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis in exchange. Animals, like other aerobic species, require oxygen to survive. Other essential nutrients are obtained by plants from dissolving minerals in the soil. They take them in through their roots. Calcium, magnesium, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and sulfur are some of the key nutrients they get from the soil. Plants can absorb boron, chloride, copper, iron, manganese, and molybdenum as micronutrients. As a result, the breakdown of dead plant parts, or the entire plant, results in the return of vital minerals and chemicals to the Earth.

Different Parts of a Plant

Before we get into the details, first we must be aware of the similarities between plants and human beings. As we have already established, plants are composed of various parts- a fact similar to human beings who are also made up of different body parts. Just like each body part of a human being has a different role to play, each part of a plant exhibits a unique role that stimulates the growth of plants. Some of the most important parts of plants include roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruit, and seeds. A detailed description of each of the parts of plants is mentioned below:

Image illustrating the parts of plants

Roots

Roots are the most important part of a plant as they are responsible for transferring the necessary nutrients to the plant. They are the agents responsible for delivering water and minerals to the plants. Besides that, they are also the active support system of plants without which the plants would fail to stick to the soil. Moreover, they are also responsible for saving up food for later use for the plants.

Absorption of water and nutrients from the soil, appropriate anchorage of plant parts, storage of reserve food material, and synthesis of plant growth regulators are the key tasks of the root system. The root cap is a thimble-like structure that covers the root at its tip. It shields the root's fragile apex as it travels through the soil. Carrot, turnip, and sweet potato adventitious roots are tapped, swelled, and stored. Prop roots are the hanging structures that hold a banyan tree. Similarly, maize and sugarcane stems have supporting roots that emerge from the lower nodes of the stem. Stilt roots are what they're called. Many roots emerge from the ground and grow vertically upwards in some plants, such as Rhizophora in swampy environments. Pneumatophores are roots that aid in the acquisition of oxygen for breathing.

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Stems

Stems are also support systems for the plants. Their main function is to act as delivery agents for the nutrients and water stored in the roots and transfer them to the other plant parts in the form of glucose. Stems also transfer food from the leaves to the other parts of the plant. Potato, ginger, turmeric, zaminkand, and colocasia underground stems have been engineered to store food. Arid-climate plants change their stems into flattened (Opuntia) or fleshy cylindrical (Euphorbia) forms. They have chlorophyll and are capable of photosynthesis.

Some plants, such as grass and strawberry, stretch underground stems to new niches, and when older sections die, new plants emerge.

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Leaves

Leaves are a fundamental part of a plant as all the necessary food for the plants is stored in the leaves. A special part about leaves is that they are designed for the process of photosynthesis which contributes to the process of making food in the leaves. Shoot apical meristems give rise to leaves. At the node, the leaf develops and bears a bud in its axil. Later on, the axillary bud develops into a branch. The leaf base, petiole, and lamina are the three primary sections of a normal leaf. The petiole aids in keeping the blade lit. Leaf-blades flap in the breeze, cooling the leaf and delivering fresh air to the surface, thanks to long thin flexible petioles. The leaf blade, or lamina, is the extended green section of the leaf with veins and veinlets.

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Flowers

Flowers are known as the reproductive products of plants. They are mostly responsible for producing fruits. The process is like this- the ovules present in the flowers get fertilized and produce fruit. They also contain pollen which helps in the pollination of the flower. After the combined process of fertilization and pollination, the ovules get transformed into fruit. Flowers offer an almost infinite variety of combinations in terms of colour, size, form, and anatomical arrangement. The essential organs of reproduction (stamens and pistils) and usually ancillary organs (sepals and petals) are carried on the floral axis of each flower. The latter would function to both attract pollination insects and preserve the vital organs.

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Fruits

Fruits are the products of reproduction in plants. The most essential component from which reproduction starts, that is the seed, is present in the fruit. Therefore, they act as a protective layer for seeds. A fruit's primary role is to disperse seeds and allow the plant to reproduce. As a result, regardless of whether the fruit is edible, sweet, or soft, all flowering plants produce fruit.

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Seeds

Seeds are the main agents for reproduction. They can be found most commonly in fruits from where they germinate and develop into new plants. Essentially, a seed is a microscopic underdeveloped plant (the embryo) that is protected by a protective covering for its early development following germination, either alone or in the presence of stored food (the testa). Seeds are ideally equipped to execute a wide range of functions, the relationships between which are not always obvious: multiplication, perennation (surviving stressful seasons such as winter), dormancy (a condition of halted development), and dissemination.

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Parts of Plants and Their Functions

• The Function of Roots: 

Roots have the most crucial function of absorbing water and minerals from the soil. Another of their most fundamental functions is to act as a support system for the plant so that it stands upright on the ground. Other secondary functions of roots include storing food for future use and regulating the growth of plants.

• The Function of Stems: 

The function of the stem is to produce fruit, flowers, and leaves. A primary function of the stem is to provide a foundational structure and protection to the plant. Another notable function of the stem is to aid in the vegetative reproduction of plants. Stems protect the plants from grazing animals by transforming their axillary buds into thorns. In hot and humid areas like deserts, there are a few plants whose stems are capable of transforming themselves into broad and pudgy structures. Such stems are capable of storing a huge amount of food for future purposes and preventing the excess loss of water.

The most unique qualities of stems are as follows: 

Support/Foundation:

A vital function of the stem is to act as a medium to all the important parts of a plant like buds, flowers, leaves, and fruits for the plant. They are the main foundational aspect of the plant that makes it stand firm and erect in the soil.

Conveying and Hauling:

One of the primary functions of the stem is to transport food materials and nutrients that are stored in the roots to the remaining parts of the plant. They also transport the food prepared by the leaves to the rest of the plant body.

Storehouse:

Stems are the storehouse of food prepared by the leaves. Stems store the food prepared by the leaves in the form of starch.

Procreation:

Vegetative reproduction is one of the primary roles of a stem.

• The Function of Leaves:

Since plants contain chlorophyll, most of the food required by the plants is prepared by them with the help of water, sunlight and carbon dioxide. The primary functions of leaves are listed below:

Preparation of Food Through Photosynthesis: 

The leaves of plants get their required air, water, and sunlight and prepare the food needed for plants through the process of photosynthesis.

Transpiration: 

The process of transpiration is one of the fundamental functions of leaves. Transpiration is the process in which excess water is removed from the plants through the stomata.

Procreation:

Leaves sometimes play a role in reproduction as well. There are some particular leaves like Bryophyllum that reproduce new leaves.

• The function of seed

They aid in the germination of new plants. Food reservoirs in the form of cotyledons and endosperm are found in the seeds. The embryo inside is protected by the seed coat, which is protective in nature.

Plants are vital components of the environment that require food to live just like human beings. A plant is comprised of different parts where each part has a unique function to perform. The different parts of a plant include roots, stems, leaves, flowers, seeds, and fruits. Roots have the function of absorbing water and minerals from the soil whereas the primary functions of stems are supporting, transporting, storing, and reproducing. Leaves form a vital component of plants as food for plants is prepared in them. Leaves are capable of performing photosynthesis and transpiration.