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CHAPTER 15
PLANT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
151 Groth
You have already studied the organisation of a flowering plant in
152 Derentiation, 3. Have you ever thought about where and how the Chapter
stems,
structures like roots.
Deti(lerertiation leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds arise and that too in an
orderly
ad 8equence? You are, by now, aware of the terms seed, seedling, plantlet.
Redillerertiation mature plant. You have also seen that trees continue to increase in height
or girth over a period of timne. However, the leaves, flowers
15.3 Developet and fruits of the
Same tree not only have limited dimensions but
also appear and fall
154 Plant Growth perlodically and some time repeatedly. Why does vegetative phase precede
Regulators flowering in a plant? All plant organs are made up of a variety of tissues: is
there any relationship between the structure of a cell, a
they perform? Can the structure and the tissue, oforgan
15.5 Photoperiodisn and the function an
15.6 Vernalisation be altered? All cells of a plant are function these
Is, then, why and how do they have descendents of the zygote. The question
different structural and functional
attributes? Development is the sum of two processes:
growth and
differentiation. To begin with, it is essential and sufficient to know
development of a mature plant from a zygote (fertilised egg) follow athat the
precise
and highly ordered succession of
events. During
body organisation is formed that produces roots, this process a complex
fruits, and seeds, andeventually they die leaves, branches, flowers.
(Figure 15.1). The
process of plant growth is seed germination. The seed first step in the
favourable conditions for growth exist in the germinates when
such favourable conditions the seeds do notenvironment. In absence of
perlod of suspended growth or rest. Once germinate and goes into a
the seeds resume metabolic favourable conditions retum.
activities and
In this chapter, you shall also growth takes place.
study some of the factors which
govern and control these developmental processes.
These factors are both
intrinsic (internal) and extrinsic (external) to the plant.