Hopefully, you remember from our discussion on photosynthesis that plants need water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight to carry out that process. Water provides the source of electrons, carbon dioxide is the source of carbon, and sunlight is going to provide the energy needed for this process. In addition to these things, plants also need nutrients. They need nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium. In particular, they need these things to build molecules and to maintain their cells, basically to live. They'll die without these things. Hopefully, you already are, you know, your brain gears are already turning, and you're thinking, ah, nitrogen, phosphorus. What could those be used for? Proteins, right? Proteins, nucleic acids too. I mean, the backbone of nucleic acids has all those phosphate groups, proteins and nucleic acids filled with nitrogen. So, you know, these nutrients are essential to the basic function of a plant's cells. Now, usually, these nutrients are obtained from the soil where they're found as ions, right? So, we're not just going to see plain old potassium sitting around. It's going to be like potassium with a charge on it. Of course, potassium is a cation, so it's going to have a positive charge. Now, plants absorb, you know, these nutrients and water through their roots. And, of course, they absorb sunlight energy through their leaves. And this absorption is going, or this need for absorption is going to play into the morphology or the appearance of those structures. So leaves have to absorb that sunlight energy, right? They take the appearance of sheets. This is actually giving them a really high surface area to volume ratio. You might recall that that surface area to volume ratio has a huge effect on absorption. The higher that ratio, the more absorption is possible. So leaves being these broad, very thin structures have very low volume for a huge amount of surface area. Roots have a slightly lower ratio. They're tube-like structures, right? So they're going to have more volume to, more volume compared to their surface area, but they form a really diffuse network. So they are able to still generate a large amount of surface area for absorption. Now, the reason they need a little more volume is that roots are also going to be super important for transporting materials, right? So you need a little space in there, in order to move stuff around effectively. Now storage structures which, you know, can be found, you know, in roots, for example, like tubers, where they, you know, the root will swell up with sugars or something like a carrot, for example. Those are structures that are not involved in absorption, and that's why they will actually have the lowest surface area volume ratio of these parts of the plants. Now, you know, you can see the two major parts of a plant right here. We have the shoots, and down here, the roots. And of course, you can also see that in this, picture of a real tree over here, where the earth's been cut away. So you can actually see all these roots below the ground here. And, of course, all these, branches and the actual trunk of the tree itself are the shoots, the proverbial shoots. So the root system has, a couple of jobs. It's not just there to absorb water and ions from the soil. It also anchors the plant into the ground, which is quite important. I mean, you know, you don't want to just blow away if a gust of wind comes by. Roots can also store materials produced in the shoots for later use, you know, think of a carrot, for example. The carrot, those are the shoots. We actually eat the root of this plant. We don't really eat the shoots of this plant. And that's because these roots are full of sugar. So they're delicious, right? And that's because they're actually being used for storage purposes, right? It's these green tops that are actually producing the sugars. And then, they're being stored in, the carrot root. Now, when talking about roots, it's important to get a little terminology straight. The main dominant root is called the taproot. Right here, you can see the taproot. I'm drawing a line through it. That is our taproot. And it's the dominant root from which all the other roots of the plant will project. Those other roots of the plant are things we call, oops, lateral roots and here I'm going to draw a lateral root, or a few lateral roots in red, so those are lateral roots. Now it's important to note that not all roots are actually going to arise from, arise from, like, some taproots. Some plants are what we call adventitious. And basically, these have roots that develop from the shoot system rather than the root system. So here you can see the shoot of a plant. So that is the shoot. Right? And, here are some roots sprouting from it. These structures right here. Let me jump out of the image. Sorry you guys can't see what I'm pointing at. Those are the roots. They're sprouting off the shoot, making this an adventitious plant. There are a variety of plants that show this sort of, morphology. A lot of vines are adventitious. More famously, fig trees send down these, long, you know, tendrils from their shoots down to form roots into the ground. Very cool-looking if you've ever seen one in person. It's almost like a canopy of these aerial roots. Now, let's turn the page.
Table of contents
- 1. Introduction to Biology2h 40m
- 2. Chemistry3h 40m
- 3. Water1h 26m
- 4. Biomolecules2h 23m
- 5. Cell Components2h 26m
- 6. The Membrane2h 31m
- 7. Energy and Metabolism2h 0m
- 8. Respiration2h 40m
- 9. Photosynthesis2h 49m
- 10. Cell Signaling59m
- 11. Cell Division2h 47m
- 12. Meiosis2h 0m
- 13. Mendelian Genetics4h 41m
- Introduction to Mendel's Experiments7m
- Genotype vs. Phenotype17m
- Punnett Squares13m
- Mendel's Experiments26m
- Mendel's Laws18m
- Monohybrid Crosses16m
- Test Crosses14m
- Dihybrid Crosses20m
- Punnett Square Probability26m
- Incomplete Dominance vs. Codominance20m
- Epistasis7m
- Non-Mendelian Genetics12m
- Pedigrees6m
- Autosomal Inheritance21m
- Sex-Linked Inheritance43m
- X-Inactivation9m
- 14. DNA Synthesis2h 27m
- 15. Gene Expression3h 20m
- 16. Regulation of Expression3h 31m
- Introduction to Regulation of Gene Expression13m
- Prokaryotic Gene Regulation via Operons27m
- The Lac Operon21m
- Glucose's Impact on Lac Operon25m
- The Trp Operon20m
- Review of the Lac Operon & Trp Operon11m
- Introduction to Eukaryotic Gene Regulation9m
- Eukaryotic Chromatin Modifications16m
- Eukaryotic Transcriptional Control22m
- Eukaryotic Post-Transcriptional Regulation28m
- Eukaryotic Post-Translational Regulation13m
- 17. Viruses37m
- 18. Biotechnology2h 58m
- 19. Genomics17m
- 20. Development1h 5m
- 21. Evolution3h 1m
- 22. Evolution of Populations3h 52m
- 23. Speciation1h 37m
- 24. History of Life on Earth2h 6m
- 25. Phylogeny2h 31m
- 26. Prokaryotes4h 59m
- 27. Protists1h 12m
- 28. Plants1h 22m
- 29. Fungi36m
- 30. Overview of Animals34m
- 31. Invertebrates1h 2m
- 32. Vertebrates50m
- 33. Plant Anatomy1h 3m
- 34. Vascular Plant Transport2m
- 35. Soil37m
- 36. Plant Reproduction47m
- 37. Plant Sensation and Response1h 9m
- 38. Animal Form and Function1h 19m
- 39. Digestive System10m
- 40. Circulatory System1h 57m
- 41. Immune System1h 12m
- 42. Osmoregulation and Excretion50m
- 43. Endocrine System4m
- 44. Animal Reproduction2m
- 45. Nervous System55m
- 46. Sensory Systems46m
- 47. Muscle Systems23m
- 48. Ecology3h 11m
- Introduction to Ecology20m
- Biogeography14m
- Earth's Climate Patterns50m
- Introduction to Terrestrial Biomes10m
- Terrestrial Biomes: Near Equator13m
- Terrestrial Biomes: Temperate Regions10m
- Terrestrial Biomes: Northern Regions15m
- Introduction to Aquatic Biomes27m
- Freshwater Aquatic Biomes14m
- Marine Aquatic Biomes13m
- 49. Animal Behavior28m
- 50. Population Ecology3h 41m
- Introduction to Population Ecology28m
- Population Sampling Methods23m
- Life History12m
- Population Demography17m
- Factors Limiting Population Growth14m
- Introduction to Population Growth Models22m
- Linear Population Growth6m
- Exponential Population Growth29m
- Logistic Population Growth32m
- r/K Selection10m
- The Human Population22m
- 51. Community Ecology2h 46m
- Introduction to Community Ecology2m
- Introduction to Community Interactions9m
- Community Interactions: Competition (-/-)38m
- Community Interactions: Exploitation (+/-)23m
- Community Interactions: Mutualism (+/+) & Commensalism (+/0)9m
- Community Structure35m
- Community Dynamics26m
- Geographic Impact on Communities21m
- 52. Ecosystems2h 36m
- 53. Conservation Biology24m
33. Plant Anatomy
Roots and Shoots
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