B5 - Plant Development

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  • Created by: 11mbrady
  • Created on: 27-03-16 16:50

B5

PLANT DEVELOPMENT

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Meristems

In plants, the only cells that are MITOTICALLY ACTIVE (divide by mitosis) are found in plant tissues called meristems

Meristem tissue is found in the areas of a plant that are growing - such as roots and shoots

Meristems produce unspecialised cells that are able to divide and form any cell type in the plant (they act like embryonic stem cells ) But these cells can divide to generate any type of cell for as long as the plant lives.

The unspecialsed cells can become specialised and form tissues like xylem and phloem (the water and food transport tissues)

These tissues can group together to form organs like leaves, roots, stems and flowers

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Cuttings

A cutting is part of a plant that has been cut off it

Cuttings taken from an area of the plants that's growing will contain unspecialised meristem cells which can differentiate to make any cell

This means a whole new plant can grow from the cutting which will be a clone of the parent plant

Gardeners often take cuttings from parent plants with desirable characteristics and then plant them to produce identical copies off the parent plant

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Rooting powder and cuttings

When taking cuttings , gardeners use rooting powder which contains plant hormones (auxins) they'll produce roots rapidly and start growing as new plants

(http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/bam/live/content/zh6gd2p/small)

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