Chapter1_Botlec

• Plant morphology is the study of the physical form and external structure of plants
• Four major areas of investigation in plant morphology:

  • Comparative plant morphology
  • Homology: structures are similar due to shared ancestry and common genetics
  • Convergence: structures are similar due to independent adaptation to common environmental pressures
  • Overlaps with plant evolution and paleobotany
• Plant morphology treats both vegetative and reproductive structures of plants
• Vegetative structures of vascular plants include the shoot system (stems and leaves) and the root system
• Reproductive structures are specific to particular groups of plants, such as flowers, seeds, fern sori, and moss capsules
• Plant morphology studies plant structure at various scales:

  • Ultrastructure and cytology at the smallest scales
  • Overlaps with plant anatomy
  • Plant growth habit at the largest scale
• Plant development is the process by which structures originate and mature as a plant grows
• Plant anatomy is the study of the internal structure of plants
• Plant anatomy is usually divided into the following structural categories:

  • Root anatomy
  • Stem anatomy
  • Wood anatomy
  • Leaf anatomy
  • Flower anatomy
  • Fruit/Seed anatomy
• History of plant anatomy:

  • Theophrastus wrote plant treatises around 300 BC
  • Marcello Malpighi and Nehemiah Grew were founders of plant anatomy in the late 1600s
  • Carl Linnaeus established taxonomy based on structure
  • Charles-François Brisseau de Mirbel and Franz Meyen contributed to plant anatomy in the 18th and 19th centuries
  • Matthias Jakob Schleiden and Eduard Strasburger made significant contributions to plant anatomy in the 19th century
  • Agnes Arber and Katherine Esau were prominent figures in comparative plant anatomy in the 20th century