GRADE 11

BIOLOGY
Plants: Anatomy, Growth
& Function
Class 15

Transport in Vascular Plants

Transport of Water & Nutrients
• Water and nutrients move
into the plant via three
stages:
1) Soil into roots
2) Roots to stem
3) Stem to leaves
• Water enters the cells by
osmosis
• Nutrients enter the cells by
active transport

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1) Soil Water into Roots
• Water is absorbed by the roots
hairs and moves through the
cortex via two different
pathways:
i. Apoplast pathway (fast) is
where water moves through
the spaces between the cells
and in the cell walls
themselves
ii. Symplast pathway (slow) is
where water passes from
cytoplasm to cytoplasm
through plasmodesmata

• Water and nutrients travel until they reach the endodermis

• Casparian strip around the endodermis prevents substances
from leaking back into the cortex
• Nutrients are actively pumped into the xylem and is now
referred to as xylem sap

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2) Roots to Stem
• Concentration of xylem sap
increases as more nutrients are
actively pumped into the xylem
• Water molecules follow due to
osmosis

• Causes increased root pressure, which

pushes the xylem sap upward against
gravity
• Root pressure and capillary action allows
the xylem sap to move up through the
xylem tube and through xylem pits

3) Stem to Leaves
• Water vapour exits the plant
through the stomata during
transpiration creating an
area of low water pressure
in the leaves
• Transpirational pull refers to
the movement of water
upwards due to the
difference in water pressure
and the cohesion and
adhesion forces between
water molecules and the
xylem; no ATP is required

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 Transport of Glucose
• Glucose can move up or down the
plant and is generally transported
from a source to a sink in the
phloem
• Source is a plant cell with a high
concentration of glucose and other
solutes; where the glucose is made
• Sink is a plant cell with a low
concentration of glucose; glucose is
converted into starch or other
carbohydrates

1) Source cells to Phloem cells

Glucose made in the leaves are actively
transported into the companion cell and
the sieve-tube elements.
Water is drawn from the xylem cells into
ACTIVE TRANSPORT
the phloem cells by osmosis.

2) Translocation
Glucose is quickly transported through
the phloem due to pressure differences
between the source cells and sink cells

PASSIVE TRANSPORT
3) Phloem to Sink Cells
Glucose moves into sink cells through
passive transport.
Water from the phloem returns to the
xylem by osmosis.

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• Location of sources and
sinks can change with the
seasons
• During the spring, plant
breaks down
carbohydrates stored in
the roots or stems into
glucose
• During the summer,
leaves are
photosynthesizing and
the glucose is stored as Spring Summer
carbohydrates in the Source: Roots/Stems Source: Leaves
roots or stems Sink: Leaves Sink: Roots/Stems

Asexual Reproduction in Seed Plants

• The production of offspring by a
single parent through cell division;
a.k.a. vegetative reproduction
• Corms in garlic, bulbs in daffodils, tuber
on potatoes, rhizomes on ginger, stolon
on strawberry can all undergo vegetative
reproduction
• New plants can also grow from
fragments of roots or shoots

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 Checkpoint

What are the costs and benefits of asexual

reproduction in plants?

Human Uses of Asexual Plant

Reproduction
• Farmers produces copies of plants
that have desirable characteristics
• Grafting involves attaching a
young branch (scion) from a
desirable plant and attaching it to
the stem of another plant (stock)
• Allows farmers to produce multiple
copies of a desirable tree or vine

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Sexual Reproduction in Plants
Function of Seed
• Protect and nourish the embryo
• Carry the embryo to a new location

Anatomy of Seed
• Embryo
• Nutritive tissue (cotyledon or
endosperm)
• Protective seed coat

Checkpoint

What are the costs and benefits of sexual

reproduction in plants?

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Sexual Reproduction in
Gymnosperms
• Characterized by
alternation of
generations
• The tree itself is the
sporophyte, the cone
Microgametophytes

contains the
gametophyte
• Female cones are larger
and are located near the
Megagametophyte

top of the tree

• Male cones are smaller
and are located in the
lower region of the tree

Female Cones
Females cones
have ovules within
each scale. Integument is the Each ovule has a
membrane that megasporangium,
protects the ovule. which contains a
megasporocyte.

Microgametophytes

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Male Cones
Pollen grains attach
to micropyle of the
ovule through wind
dispersal.

Microgametophytes

Microsporocytes
produce pollen
Male cones have microsporangium, grains by meiosis.
which produce microsporocytes.

The megasporocyte undergoes

Fertilization meiosis to produce four
megaspores, of which only the
largest one survives.

Embryo produces a
seed, which can
germinate into a
seedling (sporophyte) Surviving megaspore
produces archegonium.
Megagametophyte

Archegonium produces
the egg inside the ovule.

Pollen tube grows from the pollen

grain and produces two sperm
nuclei; one sperm fertilizes the egg,
Sperm and egg the other sperm degrades
produces an embryo

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Sexual Reproduction in Angiosperms

• Stamen (male)
• Anther produces pollen grains
• Filament raises the anther
above the female organs
• Carpel (female)
• Stigma is the sticky surface for
the pollen grains
• Style is the tube-like structure
that leads to the ovary
• Ovary contains ovules that
forms a seed when fertilized

Microsporocyte
develop in the anther. Tube cell forms
the pollen tube
that delivers
sperm to the
Generative cell in the embryo sac
pollen grains produces
two sperm cells for
double fertilization.

Surviving
Megasporocyte
megaspore
(embryo sac) develops
undergoes mitotic
inside the ovule.
Of the four haploid divisions to form
megaspores, only seven-cells and
one survives. eight nuclei.

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Double Fertilization • One sperm is involved in the formation of
the diploid zygote
• Second sperm is involved in the formation
of the triploid endosperm

Development of Fruit
• Fertilization initiates the
development of the
endosperm and seed coat
• Ovary becomes the fruit
that encloses the seed
• Ovary walls develops into
a pericarp (fruit wall) that
can be fleshy or dry
• Fruit protects the seed
from damage and aids in
seed dispersal but it does
not provide nutrients to
the developing embryo

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Responding to Changes: Succession
• Succession is gradual change in the species
composition of a community over time
• Primary Succession is
succession that takes place
in an area with no plants,
animals, or soil; occurs on
barren rock, mineral
deposits, retreating glaciers
• Colonized by pioneer species

Lichen secrete acids to erode Mosses and small plants Soil layer thickens and is able to
rock, forming soil. Animals stabilize the soil. Small support more plants and animals.
eating the lichen add their insects, birds and animals Eventually a stable community forms.
droppings to develop the feed on the small plants.
soil layer.

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• Secondary Succession occurs after an existing
community has been disturbed by natural events or
human activity
• Plant communities establish more quickly than in primary
succession

Responding to Changes: Nutrients

• Macronutrients are nutrients
that are needed in large
quantities (more than
1000mg/kg of dry mass)
• Nitrogen is responsible for stem
and leaf growth
• Phosphorus is responsible for
root, flower, and seed production
• Potassium improves health and
disease resistance of plants

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 Visual symptoms of macronutrient deficiency.
(a) Control
(b) Nitrogen deficiency
(c) Phosphorus deficiency
(d) Potassium deficiency
(e) Calcium deficiency
(f) Magnesium deficiency

• Micronutrients are nutrients that are needed in small

amounts (less than 100mg/kg of dry mass)
Micronutrient Function in Plant

Boron Important in sugar transport, cell division, and amino acid production

Chlorine Used in turgor regulation, resisting diseases and photosynthesis reactions

Copper Component of enzymes, involved with photosynthesis

Iron Component of enzymes, essential for chlorophyll synthesis, photosynthesis

Molybdenum Involved in nitrogen metabolism, essential in nitrogen fixation

Manganese Chloroplast production, cofactor in many plant reactions, activates enzymes

Component of many enzymes, essential for plant hormone balance and auxin
Zinc
activity

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Responding to Changes: Temperature
• All plants grow best at certain
temperature ranges
• Stomata open and close in
response to temperature
• Temperature can act as a signal
to begin a developmental stage
• The loblolly pine seeds will
germinate only after undergoing a
period of cold treatment

Climate Change and Plants

• For every 1°C increase, the
flowering angiosperms occurs
five days earlier on average
• Early flowering can break the
link between the flowering
date and the appearance of
pollinators
Serviceberry is an early bloomer but
now faces competition from other
plants that bloom earlier due to
increased temperatures.

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Responding to Changes: Soil
• Soil serves three purposes:
• Provides a medium for roots to anchor
• Retains water in which nutrients are
dissolved
• Provides the roots with air
• Sandy soil does not retain water and
dries out
• Clay has few air spaces and retains
too much water, which can cause
root rot

• pH of water in the soil affects growth and

development
• pH determines whether the nutrients will dissolve in
the soil water and be taken up by plant roots
• Most plants prefer mildly acidic soil

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Responding to Changes: Light

• Plants can detect changes in the

light conditions through
photoreceptors
• Photoreceptor is a molecule that
detects light of a certain intensity
(quantity) and/or wavelength
(quality)

• Photoperiodism is a plant’s response to changing day

length; ensures the plant flowers only when the
environmental conditions are best for reproduction

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• Tropism is directional change in growth or
movement in response to a stimulus
Tropism Stimulus
Phototropism Light
Gravitropism Gravity
Thigmotropism Touch
Heliotropism Sun
Red Russian kale is harvested in the International
Hydrotropism Water Space Station. In the absence of gravity, plants use
other environmental cues, such as light, to orient
Thermotropism Heat themselves and grow.

• Phototropism is a change in direction of a growing

plant in response to light

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Plant Growth Regulators
• Plant growth regulators are chemicals produced by
plant cells that regulate growth and differentiation
• Examples:
• Auxins
• Gibberellins
• Cytokinins
• Ethylene
• Abscisic acid (ABA)

• Auxins are a group of compounds that promote

cell elongation
• The side of the plant closest to light contains less auxin
than the side shaded from light so the shaded side is
stimulated to elongate

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• Auxins are used as an herbicide to
cause a plant to elongate at a rapid
rate and outstrip their carbohydrate
supply thereby killing the plant
• Synthetic auxins are used to artificially
synchronize fruit ripening so that all
the fruit can be harvested at the same
time
• High levels of auxin in the apical
meristem cause apical dominance
• Auxin stimulate the formation of new
roots

• Gibberellins promote
cell division and cell
elongation, seed
germination, and
fruit and flower
maturation
• Function to make
stored carbohydrate (a) Application of (b) Application of
reserves available to gibberellins in grapes
increases the size of the
gibberellin to lettuce
causes rapid stem
the growing embryo fruit and loosens
clustering to prevent
elongation (bolting) that
occurs prior to
mildew infection. flowering

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• Cytokinins promote cell division and delays
senescence in certain plant organs by inhibiting
protein breakdown and stimulating protein synthesis
• Stimulates lateral buds when the apical bud is removed

• Ethylene induces changes

that protect a plant against
environmental stress
• Stimulates plants to lose their
leaves in drought conditions
(abscission)
• Regulates growth of roots and
shoots around obstacles
• Promotes fruit ripening
• Promotes flower opening and
senescence
• Producers ship produce in
well-ventilated containers
with ethylene-absorbing
filters

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• Abscisic Acid (ABA) inhibits
growth and maintains dormancy
in leaf buds and seeds until the
right conditions allow for growth
• Dormant plants are less vulnerable to
damage than actively growing plants
• Nurseries apply ABA to their plants
before shipping
• ABA is produced under dry
conditions and induces guard
cells to close the stomata and
retain water

Summary of Plant Growth Regulators

Growth to Fruit Seed
Germination Flowering Development
Abscission
Maturity Dormancy

Auxin  ✓ ✓ ✓  
Gibberellin ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓  
Cytokinin  ✓ ✓ ✓  
Ethylene   ✓ ✓ ✓ 
Abscisic
Acid     ✓ ✓

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Important Terms
Apoplast Grafting Tube cell
Symplast Scion Pericarp
Plasmodesmata Stock Photoperiodism
Casparian strip Integument Phototropism
Root pressure Megasporocyte Gravitropism
Transpirational pull Microsporocyte Thigmotropism
Translocation Micropyle Plant growth regulators
Vegetative reproduction Generative cell

What I Learned Today

❑ Transport of Water
❑ Transport of Sugars
❑ Sexual Reproduction in Gymnosperms
❑ Sexual Reproduction in Angiosperms
❑ Tropisms
❑ Plant Growth Regulators
Due next class: Class 15 Homework

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