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Prickles on a blackberry branch. In plant morphology, thorns, spines, and prickles, and in general spinose structures (sometimes called spinose teeth or spinose apical processes), are hard, rigid extensions or modifications of leaves, roots, stems, or buds with sharp, stiff ends, and generally serve the same function: physically defending plants against herbivory.
[1] [2] The underlying physiological mechanism is that trees transfer water and sap from the roots to the leaves through their vascular cells, but in some trees as autumn begins, the veins carrying the sap slowly close until a layer of cells called the abscission layer completely closes off the vein allowing the tree to rid itself of the leaf. [3]
Sophora tetraptera foliage Sophora tetraptera flowers, foliage and seed pods. Most species of kōwhai grow to around 8 m high and have fairly smooth bark with small leaves. S. microphylla has smaller leaves (0.5–0.7 cm long by 0.3–0.4 cm wide) and flowers (2.5–3.5 cm long) than S. tetraptera, which has leaves of 1–2 cm long and flowers that are 3–5 cm long.
Flowering plants have their seeds inside fruits, while conifers carry their seeds in cones, and tree ferns produce spores instead. Trees play a significant role in reducing erosion and moderating the climate. They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store large quantities of carbon in their tissues. Trees and forests provide a habitat ...
Other plants are semi-evergreen and lose their leaves before the next growing season, retaining some during winter or dry periods. [11] Like a number of other deciduous plants, Forsythia flowers during the leafless season. Many deciduous plants flower during the period when they are leafless, as this increases the effectiveness of pollination.
Plant senescence is the process of aging in plants. Plants have both stress-induced and age-related developmental aging. [1] Chlorophyll degradation during leaf senescence reveals the carotenoids, such as anthocyanin and xanthophylls, which are the cause of autumn leaf color in deciduous trees. Leaf senescence has the important function of ...
Heliotropism, a form of tropism, is the diurnal or seasonal motion of plant parts (flowers or leaves) in response to the direction of the Sun. The habit of some plants to move in the direction of the Sun, a form of tropism, was already known by the Ancient Greeks. They named one of those plants after that property Heliotropium, meaning "sun turn".
Plants can interact with one another in their environment through their root systems. Studies have demonstrated that plant-plant interaction occurs among root systems via the soil as a medium. Researchers have tested whether plants growing in ambient conditions would change their behavior if a nearby plant was exposed to drought conditions. [ 44 ]