"The proof of evolution lies in those adaptations that arise from improbable foundations."
Steven J. Gould
A BASIC KNOWLEDGE OF BOTANY
can help us to understand organic gardening, and how plants function. Botany is a branch of biology that deals with plant life. Botany is the science of plants - the collecting plants for the study of plant life - the biology of a plant or plant group.
THE PLANT KINGDOM is one of the five kingdoms that are used to classify all living things.
The plant kingdom PLANTAE is divided into progressively smaller groups.
THE MOST BASIC DIVISION
is between vascular and non-vascular plants:
NON-VASCULAR: the more primitive plants such as mosses lack conductive tissue for circulation of water and nutrients. These reproduce by roots, shoots or spores.
and
VASCULAR: plants include both flowering and non-flowering plants the vast majority reproducing by seeds.
VASCULAR PLANTS THAT BEAR SEED
are divided into two groups:
GYMNOSPERM (produce naked seeds that are only partially enclosed by tissues – conifers being the largest family).
or
ANGIOSPERM (produce a covered seed in an ovary a protected chamber that forms part of the fruit).
FLOWERING PLANTS
are divided into two forms:
DICOT: which have 2 seed leaves, a network of veins on the foliage and flower parts in multiples of 4, 5, 7, or more,
and
MONOCOT: which have a single seed leaf with the veins running parallel. The flower parts are arranged in threes.
THERE ARE THREE TYPES
of flowering plants:
MONOECIOUS: the flowers are either male of female, but borne on the same plant.
DIOECIOUS: the male and female flowers are on separate plants.
BISEXUAL (hermaphrodite): each flower contains both male and female organs.
PLANTS HAVE
three types of life spans:
ANNUAL: completing their life cycle in one season of growth.
BIANNUAL: living two seasons – the first - storing food, the second - flowering, fruiting, and dying.
PERENNIAL: living for many seasons.
PERENNIALS
are divided into two groups:
HERBACEOUS: soft stemmed perennials that die back to the ground in winter and grow again in the spring.
WOODY: trees and shrubs – perennials that lose their foliage, but retain their stems and grow foliage again in the spring.
PLANTS HAVE TWO
two types of root systems:
TAPROOT: one main root going deep into the ground.
FIBEROUS: these have a complex root system spreading from the base of the plant.
PLANT LEAVES
have two functions:
PHOTOSYNTHESIS: a chemical reaction to produce sugar in the form of glucose from carbon dioxide (C02) and water (H20). Glucose allows for the production of cellulose, and starch (a later supply of energy that is stored in the plant’s cells). The first leaves gather energy from sunlight, which is necessary for Photosynthesis.
TRANSPIRATION: a process that carries minerals to leaves where oxygen and water vapor escape through the stomata.
"Every individual alive today, the highest as well as the lowest, is derived in an unbroken line from the first and lowest forms."
