Morphology Exam 1 Flashcards
What is Plant Morphology?
The form and structure of a plant and any of its parts
Why is plant morphology important?
Plant species and cultivars are identified by their differing morphological (anatomical) characteristics, i.e. leaf type, shape, and arrangement; flower type and structure; fruit type and arrangement; stem and bud types and their arrangements.
Particularly, the flower form and characteristics have been used to classify and name plants.
What is a perfect flower?
A flower that has both male and female parts
What is an imperfect flower?
A flower that has only male OR female parts
What is a Corolla?
All the petals on a flower
What is a calyx?
All the sepals of a flower
What is a monoecious species?
A species with unisexual flowers. Both male and female flowers occur on the same plant, e.g. oaks.
What is a dioecious species?
A species with unisexual flowers, but each sex of flowers is on a different plant, e.g. male and female hollies or kiwis.
What is a stamen?
The male, pollen bearing organ containing the anther and filament
What is a pistil?
The female seed producing organ, containing the stigma, style, and ovary.
What is a campanulate flower shaped like?
Shaped like a bell
What are the five parts of a papilionaceous flower?
Corolla includes 5 petals: 1 large upper petal (banner), enclosing 2 lateral petals (wings), and a lower carina of 2 united petals (keel)
Seen in the Pea Family
What is an inflorescence?
A collection of individual flowers arranged in a specific fashion
Spike flower?
Individual flower bases are attached directly to the peduncle without an attaching stem (sessile) in a spike-like format
(Culver’s Root)
Panicle flower?
A modified raceme (modified spike with flowers attached to a pedicle which then attaches to the peduncle) with alternately or irregularly branched flowers
Also known as a branched raceme and assumes the shape of a cone
Difference between umbel and corymb flower?
Umbel: all pedicels arise from one point and are equal in length, resulting in a rounded, umbrella-shaped inflorescence
Corymb: pedicels arise from different points on the peduncle and vary in length, but they all terminate at the same point, resulting in a flat-topped inflorescence
What is a Salverform flower shaped like?
Has a long Corolla tube that suddenly flares into a flat Corolla face
(Purple Verbena)
Are all fruits edible?
Yes! Horticulturally speaking, a fruit is a mature ovary that contains seeds and is consumed.
This includes culinary fruit entities and many things considered as vegetables!
Is a pistachio a nut?
Is a pistachio a fruit?
Yes, a drupe
Is a green bean an example of a pod?
Yes
What’s the difference between a drupe and a pome fruit?
Drupe: non-splitting fruit with a fleshy pericarp, divided into 3 layers: exocarp (skin), mesocarp (flesh), endocarp (stony seed covering) AKA STONEFRUIT
Pome: a fruit in which the pericarp is surrounded by the floral tube which becomes fleshy, e.g. apple, pear
Describe the two basic leaf types.
Simple: comprised of 1 leaf blade and petiole emerging below a dormant bud (might see the stipule, or remnant of the bud scales)
Compound: one leads with multiple leaflets arranged on 1 petiole (note the petiolule, or stalk, that attaches the leaflet to the petiole, AKA the rachis when between leaflets)
Bipinnately compound leaf?
These leaves have a secondary rachis, or rhachilla, attached to the primary rachis that bears leaflets, or pinnule. (Think a compound leaf, but the original leaflets are split into more leaflets. The pinnule are born off the secondary rachis only)
