Plant Growth and Development

Characteristics of Plant Growth

What is Growth?

• It is a characteristic of living beings in which an irreversible permanent increase in size of an organ or its parts occur. In smaller living beings, an increase in the size of a cell can also be termed as growth.

Characteristics of Plant growth

• Plant Growth is Indeterminate

  • Plants retain the capacity of unlimited growth throughout life.
  • Meristems are present in plants that have the ability to divide and self perpetuate.
  • Open form of growth − New cells are always being added to the plant by meristem.
  • Primary Growth − Occurs due to root apical meristems and shoot apical meristems
  • Secondary growth − Occurs due to the appearance of lateral meristems, vascular cambium, and cork cambium later in the life of certain dicots and gymnosperms

• Plant Growth is Measurable

  • Growth is measured by measuring the parameters that are directly proportional to increase in protoplasm.
  • Increase in weight (fresh and dry weight both), length, area, volume, and cell number are some parameters.
  • Choice of parameters depends upon type of plant.
    Examples:
    For pollen tube − length is the parameter
    For water melon − cell size is used
    For dorsiventral leaf − surface area is used

In the above topics we have studied what is plant growth, but you must be aware that a plant can grow only after germination of seed.
This, means that seed germination is the first step in the growth of plants. Lets study more about seed germination.

Seed germination

• It is the first step in the process of growth of plants.

• Seed germination requires…