How Plants Grow

Mort Kothmann
Texas A&M University

Plant Development and

Responses to Grazing
Objective 1
Review the developmental morphology
and growth form of grass plants.

Objective 2.
Evaluate some major physiological and
morphological plant responses to grazing.

Objective 3.
Explore the mechanisms that convey
grazing
resistance to plants.

Functional Categories of
Plants
Annual (grass, forb)
Perennial (grass, forb)
Woody
Deciduous or evergreen
Sprouting or non-sprouting (basal)

Cool season or warm season

Anti-herbivory
Chemical
Physical

Major Plant Groups on

Rangelands
Tree
Dicots
Shrub

Monocots
Forb

Grass
Grasslike

Surviving plants have strong drought resistance and

well developed chemical or structural anti-herbivory.

Grassland with scattered shrubs and small trees on

upland. Competition is for light and soil resources. Fire is
a major determinant of the dominant vegetation. Grazing
tolerance is more important than anti-herbivory.

Developmental Morphology
Phytomer Organization

Blade

Tiller Organization

Plant Organization

Ligule
Tiller 1
Phytomer 4
Sheath

Intercalar
y
Meristem
s

Tiller 2
Phytomer 3
Internode
Phytomer 2

Node

Axillar
y

Phytomer 1

Tiller 3

Tiller Cross Section

Leaf Blade

Intercalary
Meristem
Emerging Tiller

Leaf Sheath
Apical Meristem
Axillary Bud

Adventitious Root

Culmless Versus Culmed

Tillers
Culmed

Apical Meristem

Culmless

Axillary
Buds

Basal Location of Grass

Regrowth in Cumless Tillers

Meristematic Contribution to Grass

Growth
Contribution to Biomass Production

Intercalary
Meristems

Apical
Meristems

Axillary
Buds

Hours

Days

Weeks

Rate of Growth Following Defoliation

Leaf elongation
(Cell enlargement)

Leaf production
(Cell division &
differentiation)

Tiller production
(Activation of dormant
buds)

Factors Limiting Plant

Growth
Heat (optimal temperature)
Below-Ground (roots)
Water
Nitrogen and other nutrients

Above-Ground (shoot)
Light
CO2
Meristems (apical, intercalary, axillary)

Resources and Meristems

Intercalary meristems are primarily
involved with cell enlargement which
requires primarily CHO and has low N
requirement.
Axillary meristems are sites of cell division
and differentiation. Cell division requires N;
thus N availability will limit the number of
active meristems.
N content of leaves is generally 2X that of
roots; thus, low N results in less shoot
growth relative to root growth.

Allocation of Plant
Resources
Plants allocate resources
(phytosynthetate) with the priority towards
acquiring the most limiting resource(s).
If water is limiting, allocation is shifted
towards root growth over shoot growth.
If leaf area is limiting, allocation is shifted
towards leaf growth over shoot growth.

Key Concepts
N uptake is with water; if water is
limiting, N will be limiting
Higher levels of available N increase
water use efficiency
Level of available NO3 in the soil affects
the species composition of the
vegetation
Weeds require higher levels of NO3 than do
climax grasses

Physiological Responses to
Grazing

Effects of Grazing on Plants

1. Removal of photosynthetic tissues reduces
a plants ability to assimilate energy.
2. Removal of meristems (apical & intercalary)
delays or stops growth.
3. Removal of reproductive structures reduces
a plants ability to produce new individuals.
4. Grazing is a natural ecological process and
overgrazing occurred prior to humans.
5. Properly managed grazing is a sustainable
enterprise, but destructive grazing can
occur.

Compensatory
Photosynthesis
PN (% of preclipping Ps rate)

120

110

100

90

Control
Moderately clipped
Heavily clipped

80

70
0

Time From Clipping (days)

10

Resource Allocation
Biomass partitioning to roots and sheath is
reduced much more than to leaves
following partial defoliation.
Treatment

Total growth
mg

Blade growth Sheath growth

mg % total mg
% total

Root growth
mg % total

Undefoliated

69

23

33

17

25

20

29

Defoliated

38

20

53

21

18

Detling et al. 1979

Root Responses to
Defoliation
50%
70%
90%

No roots
stopped
growing

50% of roots
stopped
growing for
17 days

All roots
stopped
growing for
17 days

Root Responses to
Defoliation
Root growth decreases proportionally as
defoliation removes greater than 50% of
the plant leaf area.
Frequency of defoliation interacts with
defoliation intensity to determine the
total effect of defoliation on root growth.
The more intense the defoliation, the
greater the effect of frequency of
defoliation.

Consequences of Reduced Root

Growth
The net effect of severe grazing is to
reduce:
Total absorptive area of roots.
Soil volume explored for soil resources
e.g. water and nitrogen.

How may this alter competitive

interactions?

TNC Contribution to Shoot

Regrowth
Carbohydrate reserves exist and they provide
a small amount of energy to contribute to
initial leaf growth following severe grazing or
leaf damage e.g., fire, late spring freeze.
Current photosynthesis is the primary source
for growth of new shoots.

Growth is Exponential
The initial or residual amount of plant
tissue is very important in
determining the rate of plant growth
at any point in time.
The total amount of root and shoot
biomass is more important than the
concentration of reserve CHO.

Morphological
characteristics
Primary growth forms of grasses
Bunchgrasses
Turf or sod grasses

Stolons and Rhizomes

Stolon

Rhizome

Variation of the Grass Growth

Form

Bunchgrass
Growth-form

Intermediate
Growth-form

Sodgrass Growthform

Bunchgrass Growth Form

Herbivory Resistance
Grazing Resistance

(Mechanisms enabling plants

to survive in grazed systems)

Tolerance

Avoidance

(Mechanisms that reduce

the probability of grazing)

Morphological
Characteristics

Biochemical
Compounds

(Mechanisms that increase

growth following grazing)

Morphological
Characteristics

Physiological
Characteristics

Anti-quality Factors in
Forages

Classes of Anti-quality
Structural plant traits
Plant parts
Spines, Awns, Pubescence

Plant maturity
Leaf:Stem ratio
Live:Dead
Reproductive:Vegetative tillers

Tensile/shear strength

Structural Anti-quality
Fiber components
Cell walls
Lignin
Silica

Anti-quality
Mineral imbalances
Excess
Silicon
Se
Mo
NO3

Deficiency
N, P, K, Mg (macro minerals)
Cu, Co, Se, Zn

Anti-quality
Alkaloids
Western plants
Largest class of secondary compounds
Found in 20-30% of plant species
Highly toxic

Eastern plants
Ergot alkaloids
Fescue pastures
Dallisgrass
Perennial ryegrass

Toxicity of anti-herbivory
compounds
Plants with highly toxic compounds do
not allow animals to learn from
negative post-ingestive feedback.
Plants with less toxic compounds allow
animal to learn and develop aversions.
When nutritious forage is limited,
positive feedback may override
negative feedback and animals will
consume toxic plants.