How Plants Grow

Reference / Supplemental Reading

CMG GardenNotes

Horticulture Classification – #121
Plant Growth: Hormones – #145
Plant Growth: Light – #142
Plant Growth: Photosynthesis, Respiration and Transpiration – #141
Plant Growth: Temperature – #143
Plant Growth: Water – #144
Plant Structures: Cells, Tissues, and Structures – #131
Plant Structures: Flowers – #135
Plant Structures: Fruit – #136
Plant Structures: Leaves – #134
Plant Structures: Roots – #132
Plant Structures: Seeds – #137
Plant Structures: Stems – #133
Taxonomy – #122

Books

  • Botany for Gardeners.  Brian Capon.  Timber Press. 1990
  • Introduction to Botany.  James Schooley.  Delmar Publishers.  1997
  • Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, Fifth Edition.   Michael A. Dirr.  Stipes.  1998
  • Plant Propagation, 3rd Edition.  Hudson T. Hartman and Dale E. Kester. Prentice Hall.  1975
  • Hartman’s Plant Science,Third Edition.  Margaret J. McMahon, Anthon M. Kofranek, and Vincent E. Rubatzky. Prentice Hall.  2002
  • The Why and How of Home Horticulture.  D.R. Bienz.  Freeman.  1993
  • Winter Guide to Central Rocky Mountain Shrubs.   Co. Dept. of Natural Resources, Div. of Wildlife.  1976

Botany curriculum developed by David Whiting, Larry Vickerman and Michael Roll.  Line drawings by Scott Johnson.


For additional information contact:
David E Whiting
Extension Consumer Horticulture Specialist
Department of Horticulture and LA
Phone: 970-491-7030
Fax: 970-491-7745
E-mail: david.whiting@colostate.edu


Colorado Master Gardener training is made possible, in part, through a grant from the Colorado Garden Show, Inc.
Colorado State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Colorado counties cooperating.
Extension programs are available to all without discrimination.
No endorsement of products named is intended, nor is criticism implied of products not mentioned.
Copyright © 2003-2006. Colorado Master Gardener Program, Colorado State University Extension.  All Rights Reserved.  Training packet may not be reproduced without written permission of David Whiting. Revised June 2007

Class Reading

CMG GardenNotes

Horticulture Classification – #121
Plant Growth: Hormones – #145
Plant Growth: Light – #142
Plant Growth: Photosynthesis, Respiration and Transpiration – #141
Plant Growth: Temperature – #143
Plant Growth: Water – #144
Plant Structures: Cells, Tissues, and Structures – #131
Plant Structures: Flowers – #135
Plant Structures: Fruit – #136
Plant Structures: Leaves – #134
Plant Structures: Roots – #132
Plant Structures: Seeds – #137
Plant Structures: Stems – #133
Taxonomy – #122

Review Questions

Note: Class time does not permit the instructor to cover all the topics.  Please take time to read and review study materials.

Note: This unit covers many horticultural and botanical terms.  The objective is to understand that terms are used to communicate, and using terms correctly improves communications. 

It is not the purpose of this training to memorize terms or definitions.  In working as a CMG or gardener, when you come across a term that you don’t understand, simply use the glossary in most botany textbooks to look-up the meaning. 

Classifying Plants

  1. Why do gardeners use plant classification?
  2. Give examples of types of plant classification used by gardeners.
  3. Define the following terms:
    1. Warm season and cool season
    2. Tender and hardy
    3. Hardiness and hardiness zone
    4. Alpine, prairie, woodland, wetland, xeric, and native plants
    5. Herbaceous and woody
    6. Trees, shrubs, and vines
    7. Deciduous, evergreen, and semi-evergreen
    8. Broadleaf, narrowleaf, and needleleaf
    9. Annual, summer annual, and winter annual
    10. Biennial
    11. Perennial, herbaceous perennial, spring ephemerals, and woody perennials
  4. Outline the taxonomic classification for Pterophyta (ferns), Ginkgophyta (ginkgo trees), Coniferophyta (conifers), Monocotyledon (monocots), and Dicotyledon (dicots).
  5. How can you identify monocots and dicots based on vascular bundle arrangement, leaf venation, flower parts, and seed cotyledons?
  6. Why do horticulturists typically deal with plant families?
  7. Give the protocol for writing scientific names.  What is the difference between “sp.” and “spp.”?  Is Gleditsia triacanthos inermis a properly written scientific name for thornless honeylocust?  Explain.
  8. Define the following terms:
    1. variety
    2. cultivar
    3. clone
    4. line
    5. group
    6. strain
    7. form

Plant Structures

  1. Describe the relationships of cells, tissues, structures, and plants.
  2. List the three primary functions of roots.
  3. What percentage of plant problems begin as soil and root disorders?
  4. Define and identify the following root terms.
    1. Meristematic zones
    2. Zone of elongation
    3. Zone of maturation
    4. Primary roots
    5. Lateral roots
    6. Root tip
    7. Root cap
    8. Epidermis
    9. Root hairs
    10. Cortex cells
    11. Central vascular cylinder (vascular tissues)
    12. Tap root system
    13. Fibrous roots system
    14. Adventitious roots
  5. List the three primary functions of stems.
  6. Describe and identify the vascular bundle arrangement for monocot stems, non-woody dicot stems, and woody dicot stems.
  7. On a stem, identify the following parts:
    1. Nodes
    2. Internodes
    3. Terminal bud
    4. Lateral bud
    5. Terminal bud scar
    6. Leaf scar
    7. Bundle scar
  8. Describe how stem characteristics are used in plant identification.
  9. Define the following stem terms:
    1. Shoot
    2. Twig
    3. Branch
    4. Trunk
    5. Cane
    6. Bulb
    7. Corm
    8. Crown
    9. Stolon
    10. Rhizome
    11. Spur
    12. Tuber
    13. Tuberous stem
  10. List the two primary functions of leaves.
  11. Describe and identify leaves from Conifers, Ginkgo, Monocots, and Dicots.
  12. Define and identify the following leaf terms.
    1. Leaf blade
    2. Leaf tip
    3. Leaf base
    4. Mid-vein or midrib
    5. Lateral veins
    6. Leaf stalk or petiole
    7. Stipules
    8. Bud
    9. Pinnate venation
    10. Palmate venation
    11. Parallel venation
    12. Simple leaf
    13. Pinnately compound
    14. Palmately compound
    15. Double compound
    16. Alternate leaf arrangement
    17. Opposite leaf arrangement
    18. Whorled leaf arrangement
  13. Describe how stem characteristics are used in plant identification.
  14. With compound leaves, how can you tell what is a leaf and what is a leaflet?
  15. What is the primary function of flowers?
  16. On a flower, identify the following parts:
    1. Sepals
    2. Calyx
    3. Petals
    4. Corolla
    5. Anthers
    6. Filament
    7. Stamen
    8. Stigma
    9. Style
    10. Ovary
    11. Ovules
    12. Pistil
    13. Receptacle
    14. Pedicel
    15. Floret
  17. Define the following flower and plant terms.
    1. Complete flower
    2. Incomplete flower
    3. Perfect flower
    4. Imperfect staminate flower
    5. Imperfect pistillate flower
    6. Hermaphroditic plant
    7. Monoecious plant
    8. Dioecious plant
  18. Describe how flowers are used in plant identification.
  19. What is the primary function of fruit?
  20. On a seed, identify the following parts:
    1. Seed coat
    2. Endosperm
    3. Cotyledon
    4. Plumule
    5. Radicle
    6. Hypocotyl
    7. Epigeous emergence
    8. Hypogeous emergence
  21. Describe the difference between monocot and dicot seeds.
  22. Review thought questions on the first page of fact sheets.

Plant Growth

  1. Give a simple equation for photosynthesis and respiration.
  2. Define
    1. Photosynthesis
    2. Respiration
    3. Chloroplasts
    4. Chlorophyll
    5. Transpiration
    6. Stomata
  3. What percentage of plant water is used for transpiration?  Transpiration accounts for what percentage of the cooling effect of trees?
  4. List the functions of transpiration.
  5. List the 7 degrees of sun and shade.
  6. What is photoperiodism?  For long and short day plants, give the response (i.e., vegetative or flowering) for long and short nights.  What happens if the night is interrupted?
  7. Give examples of crop responses to warm and cold temperatures.
  8. List factors that influence plant hardiness.
  9. What does a hardiness zone map indicate?
  10. How does a sudden dramatic drop in winter temperatures impact hardiness?  How does a gradual yet significant drop in winter temperatures impact hardiness?  How does early spring warming or late spring frosts affect hardiness?
  11. Define the following terms related to winter injury:
    1. Sunscald
    2. Frost crack
    3. Frost shake
    4. Winter drought
    5. Rapid change in temperature
    6. Photo-oxidization of chlorophyll
    7. Tissue death due to low temperature
  12. How do temperate-zone plants know when to start growing in the spring?
  13. List the roles of water in plant growth.
  14. Give common symptoms of drought stress and waterlogged soils.
  15. What are the symptoms of leaf scorch?  List factors that contribute to leaf scorch?
  16. Define plant hormone and plant growth regulator.
  17. Explain how a plant balances shoot growth with root growth.
  18. Explain how a plant grows towards the sun.  Explain how a plant knows up from down.
  19. Review thought questions on the first page of fact sheets.

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Updated Monday September 24 2007, David Whiting