The part of plants that grow above the ground are stems, trunks, and of course branches. These sections of the plant are responsible for transporting water, nutrients, and carbohydrates.

There is a layer used for protection around them and this also serves to stop water loss. In the event that this covering is overexposed to water, you’ll notice that what was once a strong coating, becomes brittle and breaks down due to rotting. You’ll see this often in wooded areas that have been flooded.

Look Closely At a Plant

If you look closely at a tree, you’ll notice that the majority of the stems have nodes. A node is a point from which a leaf arises. Then, at the nodes are buds which can be found between the leaf and the stem. From there you’ll see the tip of a stem which is the terminal bud.

This bud area is usually protected by leaves. Buds contain a tiny stem with leaves ready to grow in the springtime and sometimes you can find they have flowers as well.

Just like plant roots, there are several types of specialized stems. Stolons are stems that grow just above the soil surface. They make roots at their nodes. You’ll find that strawberries, for example, spread via stolons.

You’ll also discover that there are other specialized stems that serve as storage organs essentially. These include corms, rhizomes, and tubers. There are numerous bulb plants and vegetables that form one of these types of storage stems.

The Miracle Of Leaves

If you want to find out where the power in a tree comes from then look no further than it’s leaves. Leaves are powerful! They act as a manufacturing center where sunlight is harvested to fuel photosynthesis, the process by which water and nutrients are converted to carbohydrates.

Leaves are made up of three parts:

1. The first is the blade. This is the flattened part that captures sunlight.
2. The second is the petiole or stock.
3. The third is the veins through which water and nutrients flow. Most leaves are green because they contain chlorophyll, a green pigment. Even yellow and purple-leaved plants contain chlorophyll.

Keeping water moving throughout the plant is an important role take on by the leaves. The underside of a leaf is dotted with small openings called stomata. Water travels up the plant stem to the leaves, then disperses from the veins to the stomata and out into the surrounding atmosphere. This process is called transpiration.

As water transpires from the leaf, it cools the plant. More importantly, it leaves a sort of vacuum that pulls water from the soil into the root and up the plant. If leaves transpire more water than the roots pull in, the plant wilts.

In dry regions, plants have adapted ways to slow transpiration and conserve water. Some plants have leaves that have waxy coverings; others have hairy leaves. Still others have highly modified leave, for example, interestingly, the spines on cactus are actually its leaves.

The Ins and Outs Of Flowers and Fruits

Flowers are complex structures made up of petals – the showy, pollinator, attraction portion of Most flowers – and stamens and pistils. stamens are the male part of a flower that produces pollen; pistils are the female parts.

A plant may have flowers with both pistils and stamens perfect flowers, it may have male flowers and female flowers, or it may have male flowers on one plant and female flowers on another. Most brutalist trees are males.

Fruit is the mature ovary in which seed forms. It may be flashy, like apples, Tomatoes, berries, and squash. Or it may be dry, as with sunflowers and nuts. Whether a plant develops fruit depends on many factors, some of which are beyond your control.

Weather, presence of pollinators, and temperature may have the most influence. For example, pollinators may not visit in rainy weather, Paul and can dry out in hot, dry weather.

The Different Types Of Plants

Expert botanists apportion plants into groups based on how they grow and develop. The biggest group by far are the dicots. Dicot is short for dicotyledon, which refers to the two seed leaves that appear upon germination.

Monocots have only one seed leaf. And example of these types of plants are grasses, palms, corn, and lilies.

Although most people end up purchasing plants long after the seed leaves are gone, thankfully, there are a few clues to differentiate a monocot from a dicot.

Let us start with the leaves. The veins in a monocot leaf run parallel to one another. They go up and then down a leaf. On the other hand, dicots form a web across the leaf.

Interestingly, the flower parts of monocots can be found to be in threes or multiples of 3. Dicots usually appear in fours and fives.

In the green industry, the terms monocot and dicot mean more to botanists then they do to amateur and professional gardeners. However, the reason you want to know the difference will save you when it comes to spraying herbicides.

You see, grass control herbicides injure or kill grasses, which, as we just mentioned, are monocots. Amazingly, they do not affect dicots.

Herbicides for broad-leaved weeds will affect dicots but not monocots.

The Three Groups Of Plants

Plants are divided into three groups: annuals, biennials, and perennials. Annuals live life on the edge, so to speak, and grow, flower, fruit, and die all in only one season. You’ll find a lot of garden flowers are annuals.

Biennials are essentially the same as annuals but it takes two from seed to bloom.

The biggest group of plants are known as perennials. Perennials can be found to be herbaceous or woody. Yes, they can columbine and daylilies.

In Conclusion

You can never know enough and you’ll often find that professional gardeners constantly build on their landscaping knowledge. Horticulture is an amazing mixture of science and art. It really is.

Now that you understand how a tree and plants work you can move on to the next level in your journey to better gardening.