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Pebble-plants or living stones (e.g. Lithops, Conophytum) have reduced their leaves to just two, forming a fleshy body, only the top of which may be visible above ground. Ferocactus pilosus (Mexican lime cactus), a stem succulent. Stem succulents are generally either leafless or have leaves which can be quickly shed in the event of drought ...
Viburnum lesquereuxii leaf with insect damage; Dakota Sandstone (Cretaceous) of Ellsworth County, Kansas. Scale bar is 10 mm. Knowledge of herbivory in geological time comes from three sources: fossilized plants, which may preserve evidence of defense (such as spines) or herbivory-related damage; the observation of plant debris in fossilised animal feces; and the structure of herbivore mouthparts.
Herbivory may allow less competitive, but tolerant plants to survive in communities dominated by highly competitive but intolerant plant species, thereby increasing diversity (Mariotte et al. 2013). Pejman et al. (2009) found support for this idea in an experimental study on grassland species.
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.
Primary metabolism in a plant comprises all metabolic pathways that are essential to the plant's survival. Primary metabolites are compounds that are directly involved in the growth and development of a plant whereas secondary metabolites are compounds produced in other metabolic pathways that, although important, are not essential to the functioning of the plant.
Herbivores are dependent on plants for food, and have coevolved mechanisms to obtain this food despite the evolution of a diverse arsenal of plant defenses against herbivory. Herbivore adaptations to plant defense have been likened to "offensive traits" and consist of those traits that allow for increased feeding and use of a host. [1]
A germination rate experiment. Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. [1]Plant physiologists study fundamental processes of plants, such as photosynthesis, respiration, plant nutrition, plant hormone functions, tropisms, nastic movements, photoperiodism, photomorphogenesis, circadian rhythms, environmental stress physiology, seed ...
Plant nutrition is the study of the chemical elements and compounds necessary for plant growth and reproduction, plant metabolism and their external supply. In its absence the plant is unable to complete a normal life cycle, or that the element is part of some essential plant constituent or metabolite .