Background Wisconsin Plant Lab by Brooke Bruder

A plants life cycle is very short and happens in about 40 days. At day 0
the plant contains an embryo, and a seed can stay sleeping as long as it
stays cold and dry. 1-2 days after planting, the seed germinates and swells
and cracks. At day 3, the stem pushes through the soil. Day 4, the stem
elongates and reaches toward the sun, and roots go down anchoring the
plant in the soil. Days 5-8 the stem continues to grow, roots absorb water.
Days 9-13 the plant goes from stem to leaf, and soon into a flower. Days 1417 the flowers start to bloom, and pollination occurs. Days 18-20 the
fertilized eggs in the pistils grow and become embryos. Days 21-40, flower
petals start to die, and seeds dry out.
Photosynthesis uses many components like photons, chlorophyll
molecules, protons, water, molecular oxygen, NADP, NADPH, ADP, Pi, ATP.
Occurs in chloroplasts in plants, and single cell organisms. Chlorophyll
contains electrons that can be released when excited. After 2 water
molecules have been split, one molecule of molecular oxygen is created. 2
electrons and a hydrogen ion are added to NADP to make NADPH. ATP
synthase creates ATP from ADP. ATP, NADPH, and molecular oxygen are the
final products of photosynthesis.
Plant Structure. A cotyledon is a baby plant leaf. In a dicot there is two
cotyledons, where in a monocot, there is only one. Dicot is like a dandelion
like branched out and has 4 or 5 petals and has a tap like root system, where
monocot is like grass which is parallel and has petals in multiples of three.
Plants have a root system and shoot system. In shoot there are nodes, and
the distance between nodes is an innernode. This means plants can grow up
and out. Plants have 3 tissues, dermal, ground, and vascular. In the dermal
there is epidermis and periderm. In the ground there is parenchyma,
collenchyma, and sclerenchyma. In vascular there is xylem and phloem.
Dermis is on the top and bottoms of leaves. They also guard the stomata,
which allows water to evaporate, and take in CO2. Ground is the sight of
metabolism and photosynthesis. These cells provide support. Sclerenchyma
is the strongest, which are large fibers. The Vascular xylem moves H2O, and
the phloem it moves sugar. Plants grow form the top and the bottom, but
not the middle. Primary growth is the first growth of plants. It uses a
meristem to grow up and down. Secondary growth allows a plant to become
wider. The flower is the reproductive structure. The stamen is the male
structure, on the head has an anther which produces pollen grains. The
female structure is in the ovule which protects the egg. Double fertilization
happens in plants. There are 2 sperm, and egg, and polar nuclei. One of the
sperm fertilizes the egg making it diploid, the other fertilizes the nuclei
making it triploid. The triploid is food for the plant, and the embryo is the
diploid.
Plant nutrition and transport. Plants need Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen,
oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur. Many of these are taken in though the roots.
Plants live in the above ground world and below ground, shoots and roots.

They take in CO2 though their leaves to make sugar. For roots, the water
flows through them and moves through the xylem and though the leaves and
evaporates. They also take in oxygen through their roots. Plants do cellular
respiration which requires sugar and oxygen. In the roots, the vascular
tissue is the the center of the root. For the stems, the vascular tissue moves
from the center to the stem, because it has to eventually go to the leaves. In
the root hair, the water flows in through osmosis, it goes in then up. There is
a casparian strip that does not allow water to continue through the cell wall
and force it through a membrane.
Plant control. If plants dont have muscles they use plant hormones.
Auxin, cytokinins, gibberellins, abscisic acid, ethylene are 5 of the hormones.
Auxin is a chemical that moves to the shady side of the stem, it loosens the
cellulose in the cell wall. This moves the plant because cells are moving
faster. Auxin moves against gravity affecting the roots. Cytokinins takes one
cell and divides it into two cells. Plants grows up and out, which needs more
cells. Gibberellins controls the yearly cycles of the plant. Abscisic acid
causes plants to stop transpiration, causes everything to slow down.
Ethylene is a gas that fruit lets off which ripen each other.