Final Update

I can't even believe how far my babies have come. It seems like just yesterday I adopted two little carrot and corn seedlings. But they are no longer babies anymore. They are adolescents ready to move on to bigger gardens and continue development into big and strong adults. I am so proud of Louis and Larry!

Larry

Louis

Flowering

Plants also need flowers to reproduce. Flowering occurs after the plant's adulthood which produces the pollen for fertilization. Below is a diagram of plants flowering:


Below are images of what a flowering corn and carrot plant should look like:

               Corn                                    Carrot


Monocots and dicots are the two types of flowering plants. My baby corn plant is a monocot and my baby carrot plant is a dicot. Below is a table showing the major characteristics within the two.

MONOCOTS	DICOTS
Embryo with single cotyledon	Embryo with two cotyledons
Pollen with single furrow or pore	Pollen with three furrows or pores
Flower parts in multiples of three	Flower parts in multiples of four or five
Major leaf veins parallel	Major leaf veins reticulated
Stem vacular bundles scattered	Stem vascular bundles in a ring
Roots are adventitious	Roots develop from radicle
Secondary growth absent	Secondary growth often present

Some other examples include:
Monocots: palm, bamboo, grass
Dicots: roses, oak, fruit trees

Reproduction

Reproduction in plants can be both sexual or asexual. Asexual reproduction splits the cell of the plant into two separate identical cells. Sexual reproduction copies half the DNA from two plants to create a new plant. Plants reproduce through pollination. Cone (or stamen cone) release pollen to be fertilized. The other cone is an ovulating cone which will be fertilized by the pollen if the wind is right or sexual reproduction occurs. Below is a diagram of pollination:

Food Delivery

Translocation is the movement of food from the leaves through the rest of the plant. Because plants produce sugars through photosynthesis, however translocation is required to transport nutrients to non-photosynthesis. The diagram below shows the translocation path in plants:

The phloem is the structure which transports the food and nutrients throughout the plant. They are long strands together in bundles which connect the roots all the way up to the veins of the leaves.

Root Update

These are some of the roots I discovered today which have really grown in Larry the Corn plant.

Life Cycle

The life cycle of a plant begins with  the immature seed germinating. The process of germination can be viewed in my previous blog post about it. The seedling then grows thorough adulthood (the stage at which my plants are currently in). The plant will then flower and die, or flower, then fruit, then die. Plants which flower then die are shrubs, trees, and flowers. Plants which also fruit are my baby corn and carrot plants. Both due after this stage and the seeds left behind will continue the cycle again.



A sporophyte is a plant with a diploid chromosomal number, while a gametophyte has a haploid chromosomal number. This can be seen in the diagram below:

Growth Update

It is amazing how far my babies have come!

                  Louis                              Larry