Helpful terms

Helpful terms

Herbaceous: 
Plants with stems that are usually soft and bendable. Herbaceous stems die back to the ground every year.

Woody: 
Plants with stems, such as tree trunks, that are hard and do not bend easily. Woody stems usually don't die back to the ground each year.

Photosynthesis:
A process by which a plant produces its food using energy from sunlight, carbon dioxide from the air, and water and nutrients from the soil.

Pollination: 
The movement of pollen from one plant to another. Pollination is necessary for seeds to form in flowering plants.

What's the difference between a fruit and a vegetable? 

A fruit is what a flower becomes after it is pollinated. The seeds for the plant are inside the fruit.

Vegetables are other plant parts. Carrots are roots. Asparagus stalks are stems. Lettuce is leaves.

Foods we often call vegetables when cooking are really fruits because they contain seeds inside.

For the first-year students.

Plant Parts

What Do Different Plant Parts Do?

Plant parts do different things for the plant.

Roots

Roots act like straws absorbing water and minerals from the soil. Tiny root hairs stick out of the root, helping in the absorption. Roots help to anchor the plant in the soil so it does not fall over. Roots also store extra food for future use.

Stems

Stems do many things. They support the plant. They act like the plant's plumbing system, conducting water and nutrients from the roots and food in the form of glucose from the leaves to other plant parts. Stems can be herbaceous like the bendable stem of a daisy or woody like the trunk of an oak tree.

A celery stalk, the part of celery that we eat, is a special part of the leaf structure called apetiole. A petiole is a small stalk attaching the leaf blade of a plant to the stem.	In celery, the petiole serves many of the same functions as a stem. It's easy to see the "pipes" that conduct water and nutrients in a stalk of celery.	Here the "pipes" are dyed red so you can easily see them.

Leaves

Most plants' food is made in their leaves. Leaves are designed to capture sunlight which the plant uses to make food through a process called photosynthesis.

Flowers

Flowers are the reproductive part of most plants. Flowers contain pollen and tiny eggs called ovules. After pollination of the flower and fertilization of the ovule, the ovule develops into a fruit.

Fruit

Fruit provides a covering for seeds. Fruit can be fleshy like an apple or hard like a nut.

Seeds

Seeds contain new plants. Seeds form in fruit.

Charles Darwin, widely considered as one of the greatest and most revolutionizing scientists in history, was the British naturalist who formulated the theory of evolution.

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England. He was the fifth child and second son of Robert Waring Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood. Darwin was the British naturalist who became famous for his theories of evolution and natural selection. Like several scientists before him, Darwin believed all the life on earth evolved (developed gradually) over millions of years from a few common ancestors.

From 1831 to 1836 Darwin served as naturalist aboard the H.M.S. Beagle on a British science expedition around the world. In South America Darwin found fossils of extinct animals that were similar to modern species. On the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean he noticed many variations among plants and animals of the same general type as those in South America. The expedition visited places around the world, and Darwin studied plants and animals everywhere he went, collecting specimens for further study.

Upon his return to London Darwin conducted thorough research of his notes and specimens. Out of this study grew several related theories: one, evolution did occur; two, evolutionary change was gradual, requiring thousands to millions of years; three, the primary mechanism for evolution was a process called natural selection; and four, the millions of species alive today arose from a single original life form through a branching process called "specialization."

Darwin's theory of evolutionary selection holds that variation within species occurs randomly and that the survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that organism's ability to adapt to its environment. He set these theories forth in his book called, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life" (1859) or "The Origin of Species" for short. After publication of Origin of Species, Darwin continued to write on botany, geology, and zoology until his death in 1882. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Darwin's work had a tremendous impact on religious thought. Many people strongly opposed the idea of evolution because it conflicted with their religious convictions. Darwin avoided talking about the theological and sociological aspects of his work, but other writers used his theories to support their own theories about society. Darwin was a reserved, thorough, hard working scholar who concerned himself with the feelings and emotions not only of his family, but friends and peers as well.

It has been supposed that Darwin renounced evolution on his deathbed. Shortly after his death, temperance campaigner and evangelist Lady Elizabeth Hope claimed she visited Darwin at his deathbed, and witnessed the renunciation. Her story was printed in a Boston newspaper and subsequently spread. Lady Hope's story was refuted by Darwin's daughter Henrietta who stated, "I was present at his deathbed ... He never recanted any of his scientific views, either then or earlier."