Activity

ORGANOLEPTIC EVALUATION OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF PLANT (FLOWER,

FRUITS, AND SEEDS)
No.4

Laboratory Activity No. 4

ORGANOLEPTIC EVALUATION OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF PLANT (FLOWER, FRUITS,

AND SEEDS)

Objectives:

1. To illustrate the different flowers, fruits, and seeds by identifying their common name,
english name, scientific name, family, type, and color.
2. To determine parts of flower, insertion of flowers and fruits, types of simple or compound
fruits, groups and parts of seeds, seed coats, external surface and parts of seeds, and
wind dispersed seeds.
3. To determine the condition for collecting flowers, drying of flowers, fruits, and seeds, and
to distinguish characteristics of different plant families.

Materials:

         5 different types of flowers, fruits, and seeds

Ruler, Hand lens

Procedure:
1. Place all the materials on the table.
2. Examine the materials with the naked eye.
3. Record all observations on the table provided below.

Results/Observation:

A. Illustrate the different flowers, fruits, and seeds. Give the Common Name, English
Name, Scientific name, Family, Type, Color

       Flowers                  Fruits                            Seeds

Common The fruit is yellow and

name: Color: white or pink flowers about 2 centimeters wide
Chinese
Flowering
Apple

Family:
Rosaceae

Scientific
name: Malus
spectabilis

Type:
Ornamental

Common Coloe: crimson elongated and curved, with

name: soft flesh rich in starch
Banana covered with a rind, which
may be green, yellow, red,
Family: purple, or brown when ripe
Musaceae

Scientific
name: Musa

Type: Berry

Common The fruit is a fleshy drupe,

name: Sweet The flower is white with five yellow or red with a large
Cherry petals. pit (stone)

Family: Rose
Family

Scientific
name: Prunus
avium

Type: Cider
Common Flowers are produced in As mangos ripen they
name: Mango terminal panicles. turn yellow, orange, red
Each flower is small and and purple or any
Family: white with five petals with a combination of these
Anacardiacea mild, sweet fragrance. colors.
e

Scientific
name:
Mangifera
indica

Type: Tree

Common In tomato flowers, the petals Tomato fruits show various

name: Tomato are usually yellow in color colors, such as red,
pink, orange, yellow,
Family: brown, and purple.
Solanaceae

Scientific
name:
Solanum
lycopersicum

Type: Vines

B.  Parts of a Flower                             Definition

Pedicel A pedicel is a short flower stalk in an inflorescence or cluster of flowers. This holds
individual flowers in place, but how they do that depends on the form of the
inflorescence. Its function is to expose flowers to the sun and wind and put them in
a position so their aroma and color attracts pollinating insects more easily.

Peduncle This is the stalk of the flower. Its main function is to support inflorescence.

Receptacl The thickened part of a stem from which the flower organs grow. Its function is to
e give rise to the edible part of the flower and fruit.

Bracts This is a specialized leaf or leaflike part, usually situated at the base of a flower or
 inflorescence.

Calyx This is the collective name for sepals of a flower and are often green and
hairy.This serves as a protective covering for the flower bud, helping to protect it
from insect damage and prevent it from drying out.

Sepals A leaf-like, usually green and encircles the flower stem beneath the petals. Sepals
also support and protect the fertile structures just like petals and also help attract
pollinators. This also covers the outside of a flower bud to protect the flower before
it opens.

Corolla This the collective term for all the petals of a flower. They are often brightly colored
and scented. Its function is to attract insects for pollination, and also acts as a
landing pad.

Petals These are leaf-like usually colorful structures arranged in a circle called corolla
around the top of a flower stem. Petals support and protect the fertile structures
and also help attract pollinators.

Stamens The male reproductive structure of a flower. It is made up of the filament and
anther. Its main function is to produce pollens.

Filament This is the hair-like stalk of the stamen which bears the anther. Its function is to
attach the anther to the flower stem.

Anther The terminal structure which is a part of the stamen. This produces and contains
pollens.

Pollen These are very tiny grains produced by the stamens of a flower or special sacs of
a male cone that fertilize the seeds and usually appear as fine yellow dust. 

Ovary This is the enlarged basal portion of the pistil and the structure formed at the lower
end of the pistil. This serves as a place where ovule/s containing eggs are formed
 and produced and will eventually become the fruit.

Ovule This is the chamber of an ovary containing the egg cell, within the embryo sac.
This carries female gametes and becomes seeds after fertilization.

Style Refers to the slender stalk of the pistil that the stigma sits on top of. This connects
the stigma to the ovary and the place where the pollen tube grows.

Stigma This is the sticky or feathery surface on which pollen grains land and grow. This
receives and captures the pollen grains and on which they germinate.

C.  Insertion of flowers and fruits                                  Definition

Superio The ovary is borne above the insertion of the sepals, petals, and stamens.
r

Inferior The ovary is borne below the attachment of the other floral parts.

D.  Types of simple fruits.  Define and  give 3 examples for each

Dry  

Capsular - A dry dehiscent fruit developed from several carpels. The

Capsular/dehiscent seed pod splits open in various ways and usually along several definite
seams. 

Examples: floss silk tree (Chorisia), kapok tree (Ceiba), castor bean
(Ricinus communis)

A small dry fruit composed of two or more sections that break apart;
Schizocarpic however, each section or carpel (also called a mericarp) remains
indehiscent and contains a single seed.

Examples: carrot (Daucus), celery (Apium) and sweet fennel (Foeniculum

vulgare)
 Achenial - Very small, one-seeded fruit, usually produced in clusters. At
Achenial/indehiscent maturity, the pericarp is dry and free from the internal seed, except at the
placental attachment.

Examples: sunflower seeds (Helianthus), buttercup (Ranunculus) and

sycamore (Platanus)

Succulent  

Baccate fruits are fleshy fruits with no hard part except the seeds.
Baccate
Example: grape, tomato, pomegranate

Fleshy fruit with a hard inner layer (endocarp or stone) surrounding the
Drupaceous seed.

Examples:  peach, plum, cherry

E. Types of compound fruits

A fruit that develops from a single flower with several separate carpels that fuse,
Aggregate or grow together.
s
Examples: Blackberries, raspberries, magnolia fruits

A fruit that develops from the carpels of closely associated flowers that fuse, or
Multiple grow together.

Examples: Pineapples, figs, mulberries.

F.  Group of Seeds

Exalbuminous seeds are the seeds which have the stored food and the
Exalbuminou cotyledons in a special structure called as kernel.
s
Examples: Bean, pea, walnut

Albuminous seeds are the seeds which have food stored in the special
Albuminous nourishing tissue called as endosperm that remains persistent till maturity.

Examples: Coconut, maize, oilseed

G.  Parts of seeds

Kernel The edible substance contained in the shell of a nut, or fruit stone. 
 Seed The outer covering of a seed. It helps to protect the embryo from injury and also
coats from drying out.

H. Seed Coats

Testa Hard external coating or integument of a seed.

Tegmen The delicate inner integument of a seed which lies under the testa.

Spermoder Pattern present  on the seed coat of mature seeds.

m

Aril Accessory covering of certain seeds that commonly develops from the seed
stalk, found in both angiosperms and gymnosperms.

Arillode A structure in certain seeds that resembles an aril, but is developed from the
micropyle of the ovule. 

I.  External surface of seeds

Smooth Smooth; devoid of trichomes (hairs).

Grooved having or being a surface with one or more long, narrow channels

Papillate bearing minute, rounded, nipple-like projections

Reticulate web-like or network-like

 Muricate Covered with short, hard protuberances.

Tuberculat bearing small, warty, swelling, rounded, or variously shaped projections

e

Alveolate Honey-combed

Pitted covered with a lot of small, shallow holes.

Hairy fibrous substance like cotton that grows around the seeds

J.  External parts of seeds

Funiculu stalk by which the ovule (later seed) is attached to the placenta in the fruit
s

Hilum on seeds, the scar indicating where the funiculus was attached; on grass caryopses,
the scar visible on the outer caryopsis surface revealing where the seed is attached
on the inner fruit wall surface.

Raphe a ridge or seam on a seed formed by the portion of the funiculus adnate to the
ovule, as in anatropous ovules

Micropyl an opening in the integuments of an ovule usually acting as a passage for the pollen
e tube
 Caruncle a localized outgrowth of the seed coat near the hilum of the seed in some members
of the Euphorbiaceae; it functions as an eliaosome.

L. Wind-dispersed seeds

Plumos Having many fine filaments or branches which give a feathery-like appearance.
e

Winged Referring to seeds with wing-like extensions that surround the seed, are two sides of
the side, or extend from one end of the seed, all of which facilitate wind dispersal.

Awned A narrow, bristle-like organ, as on the glumes or lemmas of grasses.

Questions:

1.  Describe the ideal weather conditions for collecting flowers. Explain

Flowers should be harvested in the morning (after dew has dried) or evening, not during
the heat of the day. Ideally, flowers should be harvested in the morning when temperatures are
low and plant water content is high. Also, flowers shouldn’t be harvested after heavy rainfall
since it can splash soil onto flowers causing a greater risk for microbial contamination and
blocked stems after harvest. It is also important that plants are not water-stress prior to
harvesting flowers. Plants should be healthy and properly watered before cutting flowers so that
the cell walls are turgid.

2.  How are flowers, fruits and seeds dried?  Why do flowers require greater care in drying?

Flowers, fruits, and seeds are dried by keeping them in a dry area and preventing them
from getting moisture, they must be stored in a place where air is dried. Flowers require greater
care in drying because when flowers are dried it will become brittle  and they can easily  be
destroyed or break apart. 

3.  List the distinguishing characteristics of the flowers and inflorescence of the families
Poaceae, Myrtaceae, and Lamiaceae.

Poaceae:

● Fruits are caryopsis.

● Seed is endospermic.
● Leaves sessile with long sheathing base; alternate; simple; ligulate; parallel venation
● Roots are fibrous adventitious.
● Habit annual or perennial herbs.
● Inflorescence spike of spikelets or panicles of spikelets.
Myrtaceae:

● Fruits are berry, capsule, drupe.

● Seed is non-endospermic.
● Leaves are simple, opposite, alternate, or whorled, shortly petiolate, exstipulate or with
minute stipule, gland dotted, coriaceous, evergreen
● Roots are tap root and branched.
● Habit mostly trees or shrubs, very rarely herbs.
● Inflorescence usually of cyme type, sometimes panicle cyme or corymbose cyme.

Lamiaceae: 

● Fruits are carcerulus.

● Seed is non-endospermic.
● Leaves are petiolate; opposite and decussate; simple; exstipulate.
● Roots are tap root.
● Habit annual herbs or rarely shrubs.
● Inflorescence verticillaster (opposite axillary cymes).

Conclusions:

The purpose of the experiment was to illustrate the different flowers, fruits, and
seeds by identifying their common name, english name, scientific name, family, type,
and color, determine parts of flower, insertion of flowers and fruits, types of simple or
compound fruits, groups and parts of seeds, seed coats, external surface and parts of
seeds, and wind dispersed seeds and lastly was to determine the condition for
collecting flowers, drying of flowers, fruits, and seeds, and to distinguish characteristics
of different plant families.

Thus, we have learned that sweet cherries, mangoes, tomatoes, bananas, and
chinese flowering apples are just some examples of flowering plants which belong to
different plant families, have different colors, and characteristics in terms of their seeds.
We have also been able to learn that there are 15 parts of the flower and each of it has
different functions. If the ovary is borne above the insertion of the sepals, petals, and
stamens, the ovary is superior, however, if the ovary is borne below the attachment of
the other floral parts, it is inferior. There are many types of simple fruits but we have
only encountered the Dry Fruits, wherein some of its examples are capsular or
dehiscent, schizocarpic, achenial/indehiscent and Succulent or Fleshy Fruits wherein
some of its example are baccate and drupaceous. We also learned that there are two
types of compound fruit, the aggregates and multiple then, exalbuminous and
albuminous are the two classification in a group of seeds. We have also identified the
two parts of the seed, part of the seed coats, the external parts and surface of the
seeds, and the wind-dispersed seeds. Lastly, we have also learned that there’s a
specific weather condition when collecting flowers and how flowers, fruits, and seeds
are being dried as well as the reasons why flowers need greater care in terms of drying.
Slide 5: Apple

Origin

In ancient China, people had keen love of this plant. During the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC),
there are records of how people cultivated the Asiatic apple. In later eras such as the Han
Dynasty (202 BC-9 AD) and the Tang Dynasty (618-907), more Asiatic apples were grown due
to better growing skills. Emperors like Liu Che from the Han Dynasty and Li Longji from the
Tang Dynasty were all lovers of this flower, hence it was very common in the gardens of
palaces.

The Asiatic apple is very hardy to coldness and drought, hence it can still do well outdoors. The
Asiatic apple is a sunshine lover, so make sure it gets enough sunlight when it is growing. It
does not need extra care to grow beautiful flowers and tasty little apples. But if you choose to
keep it in a pot, remember to choose the right seed for potting, otherwise you might see a tall
tree growing in your house.

Slide 6: Banana

The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant.[8] All the above-ground parts of a
banana plant grow from a structure usually called a "corm".[9] Plants are normally tall and fairly
sturdy, and are often mistaken for trees, but what appears to be a trunk is actually a "false stem"
or pseudostem. Bananas grow in a wide variety of soils, as long as the soil is at least 60
centimetres (2.0 ft) deep, has good drainage and is not compacted.[10] The leaves of banana
plants are composed of a "stalk" (petiole) and a blade (lamina). The base of the petiole widens
to form a sheath; the tightly packed sheaths make up the pseudostem, which is all that supports
the plant. The edges of the sheath meet when it is first produced, making it tubular. As new
growth occurs in the centre of the pseudostem the edges are forced apart.[11] Cultivated
banana plants vary in height depending on the variety and growing conditions. Most are around
5 m (16 ft) tall, with a range from 'Dwarf Cavendish' plants at around 3 m (10 ft) to 'Gros Michel'
at 7 m (23 ft) or more.[12][13] Leaves are spirally arranged and may grow 2.7 metres (8.9 ft)
long and 60 cm (2.0 ft) wide.[1] They are easily torn by the wind, resulting in the familiar frond
look

Slide 7: Sweet cherry

It is native to Europe, Anatolia, Maghreb, and Western Asia, from the British Isles south to
Morocco and Tunisia, north to the region in Norway and east to the Caucasus and northern Iran,
with a small isolated population in the western Himalaya. The species is widely cultivated in
other regions and has become naturalized in North America and Australia

Slide 8: Mango

Flowers: At the branch tips, curved upward-pointing panicles of tiny pink flowers appear, each
one with four or five petals. These are followed by the heavy, slow-ripening 6-inch fruits.

Cultivation: Found throughout tropical and sub-tropical climates, the mango requires a warm
climate and abundant moisture, but can tolerate a dry season of several months. It grows best
in full sun. It may reach 100 feet tall in Southeast Asia, but generally less than that in Mexico.
Propagation: Ordinary seedlings bear well, although the fruit may be somewhat fibrous. The
improved mango varieties are grown from cuttings and are free of fiber.

Note: Mango leaves have a turpentine odor when crushed.

Slide 9: Tomato

Numerous varieties of the tomato plant are widely grown in temperate climates across the
world, with greenhouses allowing for the production of tomatoes throughout all seasons of the
year. Tomato plants typically grow to 1–3 meters (3–10 ft) in height. They are vines that have a
weak stem that sprawls and typically needs support. Indeterminate tomato plants are perennials
in their native habitat, but are cultivated as annuals. (Determinate, or bush, plants are annuals
that stop growing at a certain height and produce a crop all at once.) The size of the tomato
varies according to the cultivar, with a range of 1–10 cm (1⁄2–4 in) in width.

Slide 28:

The position of the ovary in relation to the other floral parts is often used as a character to
distinguish taxa, especially families. If the ovary is borne above the insertion of the sepals,
petals, and stamens, the ovary is superior. If the ovary is borne below the attachment of the
other floral parts, it is inferior.

Slide 35:

Banana is berry-like but it do not have hard seeds so let us replace it with tomato. (Grapes,
tomato, pomegranate)

Slide 37:

The key difference between aggregate fruit and multiple fruit is that the aggregate fruit is a fruit
resulting from a single flower, while the multiple fruit is a fruit resulting from several flowers.

Slide 38:

Exalbuminous seeds are the seeds which have the stored food and the cotyledons in a special
structure called as the kernel. It does not remain until the embryo is mature.

Albuminous seeds are the seeds which have food stored in the special nourishing tissue called
as endosperm that remains persistent till maturity. Cotyledons only act as food sucking organs
and not food storage organs.

Slide 51:

In endospermic seed, endosperm is present. Endosperm is the part of a seed which acts as a
food store for the developing plant embryo.

In non-endospermic, endosperm is absent. So the food is stored in the cotyledons.