Week 3 Questions: Roots, Shoots, & Plant Tissues
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What contributes to elongation of a plant axis following germination?
Why are apical meristems said to be composed of ‘stem cells’?
What is a primary cell/tissue?
Define a tissue.
For parenchyma, collenchyma, and sclerenchyma cells: describe their cell wall structure,
their functions, and whether they perform these functions alive or dead.
What are 2 cell types that compose sclerenchyma tissue? Describe each.
What makes peach seeds and nutshells hard? Why?
What makes a pear or fig gritty?
Of which 2 cell types can xylem be composed? In which plant groups are they found?
What are 2 characteristics of xylem? What is its function?
How do vessel elements group to make a vessel?
How does water flow through vessels and tracheids differently? Diagram this difference.
How does this difference relate to the ability of pathogens to harm plants?
What is the function of phloem? Is it alive or dead when functional? Which 2 cell types
compose the phloem?
How do sieve tube elements group to make sieve tubes?
What is a sieve plate? What runs through the sieve pores?
Why have sieve tube elements eliminated the nucleus? How do these cells make proteins
and repairs if they no longer have nuclear DNA?
Diagram the developmental relationship between a sieve tube element and a companion
cell.
What is the function of the epidermis? Where is it located? Of how many cell layers is it
commonly composed?
What is the cuticle? Which tissue produces it?
How do gasses for (and from) photosynthesis get in (and out) of the plant if the cuticle
covers the epidermis?
Give examples of how plants have modified their epidermis for: (a) physical protection
(b) water and nutrient absorption (c) protection from intense sunlight (d) prey digestion
What are 3 functions of the root system?
Give the specialized functions of roots in the following plants: (a) mangrove (b) ivy (c)
beets and carrots
What is the primary root?
Describe the primary root of eudicots.
What is the consequence of the short-lived primary root in monocots? Describe the
adventitious root system of monocots. How does this root system help make monocots
helpful in erosion-prone landscapes?
From a seedling to maturity, describe how the proportion of root:shoot system changes.
How does the mature ratio (of root:shoot) explain why you should cut off some of the
shoot system when you re-pot or transport an angiosperm?
Why might it be functional to have 2 stories/levels to the root system? Diagram what this
might look like.
Distinguish between a longitudinal (ls) and a cross (xs) section.
Diagram a root in ls, labeling the root body, vascular tissue, root meristem, and root cap.
What are the functions of the root cap?
How is it thought the root cap ‘perceives’ gravity?
What 3 processes are responsible for developing a plant root? Where do those processes
occur in the root?
32. Diagram a xs of a eudicot root, labeling the epidermis, cortex, endodermis, pericycle,
phloem, and xylem.
33. From which root structure do branches or lateral roots derive?
34. Distinguish between the apoplastic and symplastic pathway. What is the fate of a
molecule/ion that enters each?
35. What are the 2 basic parts to a stem? What common structure arises from the nodes?
36. Diagram the ls of a shoot apical meristem, labeling the apical dome, leaf primordium,
bud primordium, epidermis, vascular tissue, and cortex/parenchyma.
37. Compare the xs features of a monocot and eudicot stem. Label the epidermis, cortex (or
ground tissue), and vascular bundles in each. How does the orientation of xylem and
phloem differ?
38. Diagram an axillary bud. From which structure in the shoot apical meristem does it
derive?
39. What is the Fibonacci series? What does it describe? What is the underlying
biochemical mechanism that explains this pattern?
40. Once a leaf arises from a leaf primordium, it must connect its vascular tissue to the main
vascular tissue in the stem. How does this process result in the xylem running across the
top surface of the leaf (petiole and blade)? Diagram what this would look like in the xs of
a eudicot leaf.
41. What are the ‘veins’ in a leaf? How does their pattern in a eudicot vs. monocot generally
differ?
42. Diagram the xs of a leaf, labeling the epidermis, palisade parenchyma, spongy
parenchyma, and lower epidermis. What important process largely occurs in the palisade
parenchyma?
43. How does Lithops (the Stone Plant) accommodate different intensities of sunlight
throughout the day without damaging its palisade parenchyma (on the one hand) or
filtering out too much light (on the other)?
44. Can a baby float on a really big lily pad?
45. Describe the mutualistic/coevolutionary relationship between Acacia (the Bull Horn) and
the ants that live within it.
46. What is a tendril?
47. Give an example of a ‘bulb’. Why do all the leaves appear connected in the example you
gave?
48. What are the functions of the leaves in an onion?
49. What are 2 hypotheses to explain the holes in the leaves of Monstera (Philodendron)?
50. What are the eyes of a potato? Would you predict to be able to grow an entire potato
from one of these ‘eyes’? Why or why not?