BIO330H5 Lecture 4: BIO330 4
Document Summary
Unitary organism = organism is one basic unit. Plants are modular, made of repeating units, unlike animals (unitary) Plants are made up of internode = branch in between leaves; leaf; bud. For most animals, if you lose part of your body its major. However, if plants lose a module, it is often without fatal results. Means that there is ambiguity as to defining where one plant begins and ends i. e. corals are modular animals: coral is a single animal made up of thousands or repeating units. All modules come from specialized cells called meristems. Shoot apical meristem: termination of the shoot, budding off additional modules: apical meristems produce more modules; result in elongation. Axillary bud meristem have the potential to become apical meristems. Once plants mature, they stop growing instead they produce new stems. Damaging meristems can seriously impede future growth, recovery.
