Morphology of Flowering Plants Test -13

The portion of embryo axis between the plumule and cotyledonary node is called epicotyl.

The oldest \(^{14}C\)-dated seed that has grown into a viable plant was Judean date palm (a cultivar of Phoenix dactylifera) seed about 2000 years old, recovered from excavations at Herod the Great’s palace at Masada in Israel.

It was successfully sprouted in 2005.

A seed develops from an ovule after fertilisation. It consists of a tough coat called testa enclosing an embryo which is made up of plumule, radicle or cotyledons. It is produced from an outer integument of the ovule.

Orange is a type of hesperidium fruit. Hesperidium is a modification of berry with a leathery hard pericarp, fibrous mesocarp and endocarp and fleshy placental hairs.

Aril is not found in oranges. They are a feature of litchi.

Grape fruit has a succulent and soft pericarp with the only hard part being the seed which is a characteristic feature of berries.

Siliqua and lomentum are dry fruits.

Drupe fruits have a stony hard endocarp which is not the case with grapes.

(a) Fruit of mango is an example of a drupe. A drupe or stone fruit is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part-exocarp, or skin and mesocarp or flesh surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside.

(b) These fruits usually develop from a single carpel and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries.

The definitive characteristic of a drupe is that the hard, lignified stone (or pit) is derived from the ovary wall of the flower.

The fruit of the coconut is a large, dry drupe composed of a thin outer layer (exocarp), a thick, fibrous middle layer called as a mesocarp and a hard inner layer called as an endocarp that surrounds a large seed.

Accessory fruit develops from ovary as well as other parts of the flower like thalamus.

A simple fruit is a fruit developing from a single ovary of a single flower.

Single fruit is not a type of fruits.

Pseudocarp is another name for false fruit which develops from any other part of flower except the ovary.

In Valvate aestivation, there is no overlapping.

Michelia belongs to the family Magnoliaceae. It shows numerous free pistils that is arranged spirally on cone-shaped thalamus. The ovaries are superior, so the flower is hypogynous.

Cymose type of inflorescence is one in which the tip of the main axis ends in a flower. This type of inflorescence is seen in Solanum, where the flowers are born in a single plane.

Sesbania and Trifolium have a racemose type of inflorescence.

In cauliflower, the main axis is short and the lower flowers have much longer pedicels than the upper ones.

 Hence, the flowers appear to be at the same level. It forms compound corymb type of inflorescence.

Verticillaster is a cluster of sessile or subsessile flowers borne on a dichasial cyme ending in monochasial cyme (scorpioid) in the form of condensed whorl on either side of the node.

Examples: Ocimum (Tulsi) and Salvia (Lamiaceae).

Pulvinus is a swollen leaf base. Pulvinate leaf base is found in leguminous plants. It is seen in mango leaves. It is seen in Fabaceae family. Example includes Trifolium pratense.

Mango ginger is a modification of adventitious roots. These roots become swollen at their tips due to accumulation of food.

Victoria regia an aquatic plant with floating leaves. Which are 4 meters in radius and diameter 1.5 - 1.8 m. These are the largest leaves in plant kingdom.

Secondary and tertiary roots are respectively the branches of first and second order. They are formed in acropetal succession (youngest towards growing point and oldest towards the base of the parent root). Rootlets are the ultimate branches. They bear root hairs for absorption.

The primary tap root and its branches of leguminous plants, i.e., plants belonging to sub-family papilionatae of family leguminosae (e.g., Pea, Gram, and Groundnut etc.) bear nodule-like swellings, called root nodules.

Asparagus has succulent roots because the plant stores food in them making fleshy and helpful for perrenation.