5. INTRODUCTION - MORPHOLOGY OF FLOWERING PLANTS

5. MORPHOLOGY OF FLOWERING PLANTS

Introduction

The description of the diverse forms of life on earth was made only by observation – through naked eyes or later through magnifying lenses and microscopes. This description is mainly of gross external and internal structural features. 

In addition, observable and perceivable living phenomena were also recorded as part of this description. 

Before experimental biology or more specifically, physiology, was established as a part of biology, naturalists described only structural features. Hence, biology remained as a natural history for a long time. 

The detailed description was utilised in the later day reductionist biology where living processes drew more attention from scientists than the description of life forms and their structure. Hence, this description became meaningful and helpful in framing research questions in physiology or evolutionary biology. 

The wide range in the structure of higher plants will never fail to fascinate us. Though angiosperms show a large diversity in external structure or morphology, they are all characterised by presence of roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruits. 

If you pull out any weed you will see that all of them have roots, stems and leaves. They may be bearing flowers and fruits. 

The underground part of the flowering plant is the root system while the portion above the ground  forms the shoot system (Figure 5.1).

KATHERINE ESAU was born in Ukraine in 1898. She  studied agriculture in Russia and Germany and received her doctorate in 1931 in United States. She reported in her early publications that the curly top virus spreads through a plant via the foodconducting or phloem tissue. Dr Esau’s Plant Anatomy published in 1954 took a dynamic, developmental approach designed to enhance one’s understanding of plant structure and an enormous impact worldwide, literally bringing about a revival of the discipline. The Anatomy of Seed Plants by Katherine Esau was published in 1960. It was referred to as Webster’s of plant biology – it is encyclopediac. In 1957 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, becoming the sixth woman to receive that honour. In addition to this prestigious award, she received the National Medal of Science from President George Bush in 1989. When Katherine Esau died in the year 1997, Peter Raven, director of Anatomy and Morphology, Missouri Botanical Garden, remembered that she  ‘absolutely dominated’ the field of plant biology even at the age of 99.