| Home | E-mail | Cactuspedia | Mail Sale Catalogue | Links | Information | Search  |

 
 
 

Photosynthesis  [ Botany - Physiology]
Adjective: Photosynthetic
photosynthesizing

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

     
  The most important characteristic of plants is their ability to photosynthesize, photosynthesis is the process in which plants, green algae, and some bacteria convert sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into oxygen and in the sugars that they need for growth.  
     
Light-sensitive pigments called chlorophylls and closely-related pigments like carotenoid are essential to the photosynthetic process. Thanks to photosynthesis plants are autotrophs, which means that they sustain themselves without eating other organisms or substances derived from other organisms. It sustain practically all living being directly or indirectly, making it vital to life on Earth.

 


Advertising



 

 

1


 
 
 
Holdfast roots  [ Botany  ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

 
     
  Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.  
     
Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans),  develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994
     

 

 

 

| Home | E-mail | Cactuspedia | Mail Sale Catalogue | Links | Information | Search  |