Technical Description of a Tomato Plant

Tomato Plant, (Solanum lycopersicum), are generally branched out, spreading 60–180 cm (24–72 inches).

 

Leaves

Leaves are hairy, odorous, and compounded meaning the tomato plant’s leaves have each branch growing from the main stem and it consists of a leaf. A leaf is up to 45 cm (18 inches) long. Leaflets grows along the rachis or the central stem.The petiole is where rachis is attached to the trunk of the tomato plant. Furthermore, the stem where each leaflet attaches to the rachis is called the petiolule. Each leaflet can have smaller leaflets along the stem before ending in a large primary leaflet at the end of this branch.

Diagram Of The Compound Wild-Type Tomato Leaf With Related Terminology Of The Leaf Parts. (Adopted From Berger Et Al. 2009).

Flowers

A tomato plant’s flower is five-petaled and is clustered together. Each flower are yellow and 2 cm (0.8 inch) across.

Fruit

Tomato fruits are berries and these berries varies in diameter from 1.5 to 7.5 cm (0.6 to 3 inches). They can be red, scarlet, or yellow, and variation in shape also occur from almost spherical to oval and pear-shaped. A ripe tomato fruit, the observer contains two or more inner chambers (locular cavities) where seeds are encased in a gelatinous, jelly like mass. These chambers are surrounded by a denser fleshy material (the placental tissue) housed by a smooth outer wall (the pericarp). The skin of the tomato have the vascular bundles, whose function is to carry water and nutrients to the interior of the fruit.

Stem

The main trunk of the tomato plant has three parts. The shoot apical meristem (SAM), is the actively growing portion located at the crown of the plant is the first part. The second part is the primary tissues behind the SAM. The SAM grows upward, the secondary tissue (the third part) grows outward.

Roots

Tomato plants have one of two types of root systems. Plants grown from seed usually have a taproot system, while the tomato plants grown from cuttings have fibrous root systems.Taproot systems have a larger, central root where the other smaller roots in the system branch out of. Fibrous systems are more complex, with the roots branching out being the same diameter in size. 

 

Citation

Donahue, M. Z. (2019, March 12). Anatomy of a Tomato Plant. Retrieved from https://www.gardenguides.com/105107-anatomy-tomato-plant.html

Britannica, T. E. (2018, July 29). Tomato. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/plant/tomato

Vashtie Mangal

Professor Coppola 

Writing for the Sciences

Technical Description of Photosynthesis

Source: Photosynthesis Education

Photosynthesis is the process in which light energy is converted to chemical energy in the form of sugars.

Carbon dioxide from the air passes through small pores, called stomata in the leaves.

Water is absorbed by the roots of the plants and passes through vessels in the stem on its journey to the leaves.

The photosynthesis process takes place in the leaves of plants. The leaves of a plant are composed of cells and each cells contain chloroplasts. Each chloroplast contains a green chemical called chlorophyll which absorbs the sun’s energy. The solar energy is then used to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
Oxygen is released from the leaves into the atmosphere while the hydrogen and carbon dioxide are used to form glucose which is used as food for the plants. 

Source: Khan Academy 

To summarizes, photosynthesis is a process driven by light energy, glucose molecules are constructed from water and carbon dioxide, and oxygen is released as a byproduct.

 

Citation

Photosynthesis for Kids. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://photosynthesiseducation.com/photosynthesis-for-kids/

Intro to photosynthesis. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/photosynthesis-in-plants/introduction-to-stages-of-photosynthesis/a/intro-to-photosynthesis