Ch 6Anatomy of Flowering Plants — Class 11 Biology, concept-first.

Just as the external appearance of living organisms — both plants and animals — shows structural similarities as well as variations, examining their internal structure reveals a similar mix of shared…

The previous chapter classified plant tissues by the type of cell that makes each one up — meristematic tissue and the various permanent tissues.

The epidermal tissue system forms the outermost covering of the whole plant body. It is made up of epidermal cells, stomata and the epidermal appendages known as trichomes and hairs.

All the tissues of a plant except the epidermis and the vascular bundles together constitute the ground tissue, also called the fundamental tissue.

The vascular tissue system consists of the complex tissues, the phloem and the xylem. Together the xylem and phloem constitute the vascular bundles, which are the conducting channels of the plant.

For a better understanding of how tissues are organised in the different organs of a plant, it is convenient to study the transverse sections of the mature zones of roots, stems and leaves.

The internal structure of a dicotyledonous root can be understood from a transverse section of a young sunflower root.

The anatomy of the monocotyledonous root is similar to that of the dicot root in many respects. A transverse section shows the same general set of tissues, arranged from the outside inwards:

The transverse section of a typical young dicotyledonous stem shows a clear zonation from the outside to the centre.

The monocotyledonous stem differs from the dicot stem in several characteristic ways. Its main features are:

A vertical section through the lamina of a dorsiventral (dicotyledonous) leaf shows three main parts, namely the epidermis, the mesophyll and the vascular system.

The anatomy of the isobilateral (monocotyledonous) leaf is similar in many ways to that of the dorsiventral leaf, but it shows the following characteristic differences:

Anatomically, a plant is made up of different kinds of tissues. The plant tissues are broadly classified into meristematic tissues, which include apical, lateral and intercalary meristems, and permane…

Higher-order thinking / exemplar-style practice problems.