Morphology of Flowering Plants

Biology · Class 11

Lesson 13 of 13 · 13 min

Chapter review

Watch a class

The whole chapter on YouTube

Whole chapter, line by line

Competition Wallah · Hinglish · Whole chapter · Open on YouTube

Whole chapter revision with diagrams

Next Toppers - 11th Science · Hinglish · Whole chapter · Open on YouTube

Loading the full lesson

Must-know facts

20 facts

  1. 1Tap root: mustard. Fibrous root: wheat. Adventitious roots: grass, Monstera, banyan.
  2. 2Root tip from apex back: root cap, meristematic region, region of elongation, region of maturation (root hairs).
  3. 3Stem grows from the plumule; root from the radicle. Only the stem has nodes and internodes.
  4. 4Leaf base sheath: monocots. Pulvinus: swollen leaf base in some legumes.
  5. 5Reticulate venation: dicots. Parallel venation: most monocots.
  6. 6Axillary bud: in the axil of the petiole, never in the axil of a leaflet.
  7. 7Pinnately compound: neem (rachis). Palmately compound: silk cotton.
  8. 8Phyllotaxy: alternate (china rose, mustard, sunflower), opposite (Calotropis, guava), whorled (Alstonia).
  9. 9Racemose: axis keeps growing, acropetal. Cymose: axis ends in a flower, basipetal.
  10. 10Actinomorphic: mustard, datura, chilli. Zygomorphic: pea, gulmohur, bean, Cassia. Asymmetric: canna.
  11. 11Superior ovary (hypogynous): mustard, china rose, brinjal. Half inferior (perigynous): plum, rose, peach. Inferior (epigynous): guava, cucumber, sunflower ray florets.
  12. 12Aestivation: valvate (Calotropis), twisted (china rose, lady's finger, cotton), imbricate (Cassia, gulmohur), vexillary (pea, bean).
  13. 13Epipetalous: brinjal. Epiphyllous: lily. Monoadelphous: china rose. Diadelphous: pea. Polyadelphous: citrus.
  14. 14Apocarpous: lotus, rose. Syncarpous: mustard, tomato.
  15. 15Placentation: marginal (pea), axile (china rose, tomato, lemon), parietal (mustard, Argemone), free central (Dianthus, Primrose), basal (sunflower, marigold).
  16. 16Drupe: mango and coconut, from a monocarpellary superior ovary, one-seeded; coconut mesocarp is fibrous.
  17. 17Endospermic dicot: castor. Non-endospermous: bean, gram, pea. Non-endospermic monocot: orchids.
  18. 18Maize seed: aleurone layer, scutellum, coleoptile over the plumule, coleorhiza over the radicle.
  19. 19Mustard (Brassicaceae): ⊕ ⚥ K2+2 C4 A2+4 G(2).
  20. 20Solanaceae: ⊕ ⚥ K(5) C(5) A5 G(2), epipetalous, axile placentation, berry or capsule.

Common traps

Where marks are lost

Calling a leaflet of a neem leaf a whole leaf.

Look for the bud. A bud sits in the axil of the petiole, never in the axil of a leaflet.

Mixing up the order of flowers in racemose and cymose inflorescences.

Racemose: axis keeps growing, youngest flowers at the tip (acropetal). Cymose: axis ends in a flower, oldest at the top (basipetal).

Taking rose as hypogynous or guava as perigynous.

Rose, plum, peach: perigynous, half inferior. Guava, cucumber, sunflower ray florets: epigynous, inferior.

Swapping twisted and imbricate aestivation examples.

Twisted, overlapping in one direction: china rose, lady's finger, cotton. Imbricate, no fixed direction: Cassia, gulmohur.

Writing that the keel petals are the largest in a pea flower.

The standard is the largest and outermost; it overlaps the two wings, which overlap the two smallest petals, the keel.

Using epipetalous for lily.

Lily has a perianth, so its stamens are epiphyllous. Epipetalous is brinjal.

Giving mustard axile placentation.

Mustard is parietal: a one-chambered ovary made two-chambered by a false septum. Axile is china rose, tomato, lemon.

Saying all monocot seeds are endospermic, or all dicot seeds non-endospermous.

Orchids (monocot) are non-endospermic; castor (dicot) is endospermic.

Putting the coleoptile around the radicle.

Coleoptile sheaths the plumule (shoot); coleorhiza sheaths the radicle (root).

Key terms

20 terms

Adventitious root
A root that grows from any part other than the radicle.
Root cap
The thimble-shaped cover protecting the root apex.
Node
The point on a stem where leaves arise; the stretch between two nodes is an internode.
Pulvinus
The swollen leaf base seen in some leguminous plants.
Rachis
The common axis of a pinnately compound leaf, standing for its midrib.
Phyllotaxy
The pattern in which leaves are arranged on a stem or branch.
Inflorescence
The way flowers are arranged on the floral axis.
Thalamus
The swollen end of the pedicel on which the floral whorls sit; also called the receptacle.
Perianth
Calyx and corolla together when they cannot be told apart, as in lily.
Aestivation
How sepals or petals are arranged in the bud relative to others of the same whorl.
Staminode
A sterile stamen.
Epipetalous
Stamens attached to the petals.
Syncarpous
A gynoecium whose carpels are fused; free carpels are apocarpous.
Placentation
The arrangement of ovules inside the ovary.
Parthenocarpic fruit
A fruit formed without fertilisation of the ovary.
Drupe
A one-seeded fruit from a monocarpellary superior ovary with a stony endocarp, such as mango.
Hilum
The scar on the seed coat where the seed was attached to the fruit.
Scutellum
The single large shield-shaped cotyledon of a cereal embryo.
Aleurone layer
The proteinous outer layer of the endosperm in a maize grain.
Coleoptile
The sheath around the plumule of a monocot embryo; the coleorhiza sheaths the radicle.
Test yourself: 10 questionsExam-style questions on Morphology of Flowering Plants, with full solutions.Start
Chapter review | Morphology of Flowering Plants | Lumi Learn