Plant Development Outline

• Introduction to Plant Organ Development

  • Explanation of the orderly sequence of structures in a flowering plant

  • Understanding the terms seed, seedling, plantlet, and mature plant

  • Observation of continuous growth in trees and periodic appearance of leaves, flowers, and fruits

• Vegetative Phase and Flowering

  • Questioning the precedence of the vegetative phase before flowering

  • Exploring the relationship between plant organs and their tissues

  • Possibility of altering the structure and function of plant cells, tissues, and organs

• Cell Development and Differentiation

  • Understanding that all plant cells originate from the zygote

  • Investigating the reasons for different structural and functional attributes in plant cells

  • Differentiation as the combination of growth and differentiation processes

• Plant Development Process

  • Overview of the precise and ordered succession of events from zygote to mature plant

  • Formation of roots, leaves, branches, flowers, fruits, and seeds

  • Inevitability of plant death in the life cycle

• Factors Influencing Plant Development

  • Discussion on intrinsic and extrinsic factors governing and controlling developmental processes

  • Understanding the impact of internal and external factors on plant growth and differentiation

• Conclusion

  • Emphasizing the importance of understanding plant development for a comprehensive view of plant life

  • Encouraging further exploration of the factors influencing plant growth and development

You have already studied the organisation of a flowering plant in Chapter5. Have you ever thought about where and how the structures like roots,stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds arise and that too in an orderlysequence? You are, by now, aware of the terms seed, seedling, plantlet,mature plant. You have also seen that trees continue to increase in heightor girth over a period of time. However, the leaves, flowers and fruits of thesame tree not only have limited dimensions but also appear and fallperiodically and some time repeatedly. Why does vegetative phase precedeflowering 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 tissue, an organand the function they perform? Can the structure and the function ofthese be altered? All cells of a plant are descendents of the zygote. Thequestion is, then, why and how do they have different structural andfunctional attributes? Development is the sum of two processes: growthand differentiation. To begin with, it is essential and sufficient to knowthat the development of a mature plant from a zygote (fertilised egg) followa precise and highly ordered succession of events. During this process acomplex body organisation is formed that produces roots, leaves,branches, flowers, fruits, and seeds, and eventually they die (Figure 15.1).In this chapter, you shall also study some of the factors which governand control these developmental processes. These factors are both intrinsic(internal) and extrinsic (external) to the plant