Plant Parts Tell All

Plant parts tell you all there is to know about how plants and humans have a true symbiotic relationship. The way that gardeners nourish and nurture fruit and vegetables, the plant kingdom nourishes us with not only nutrients from foods but with clean air to breath. The parts of the plant are twofold, sexual reproductive parts and the nutrient bearing vascular system. The sexual parts of the plant are the flower buds, flowers, fruit and seeds. The vascular system consists of leaves, roots, leaf buds and stems.

In plants, nutrients travel up the channels of each part of the stem, the phloem and the xylem. The phloem and xylem veins bring nourishment up from the soil into the plant to the stems, buds and fruits. The phloem draws sugars and the xylem brings water and minerals up to the plant. The cambium is between the two and is the center of growth for plants.

Nodes are where the leaf clusters are located, however, any part of the plant stem that has a little bulge is a node. It is a center of cell growth, much like the pressure points along our own nervous system, they represent sensitivity in the plant. When you cut a stem, you must cut just above the node to stimulate new growth.

The Breakdown in Vegetable Garden Planting

Biennial plants are started as seeds in either greenhouse settings or in the major planting of an agricultural field. In the first season, vegetative structures and food storage organs grow. In the second season the plant grows flowers, fruit, and seeds for propagation. Biennial vegetables then die. Examples of biennial vegetables include carrots, beets, cabbage, celery, and onions.

When you are eating vegetables, you are most often eating the stem of the plant. Asparagus is a stem. Broccoli is a stem tissue and flower buds. A tuber is the name of the stem. When you eat a potato or a truffle, you are eating a tuber. And cauliflower is stem tissue that has burgeoned out.

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