Personality of plants

by Royal Dixon; Franklyn Everett Fitch

When the first leaves have fully opened and the spent cotyledons have dropped off as mere empty shells, the independent life of the plant may be said to have begun. We are now in a position to examine its methods of living.

Examining the root, we find that by this time it has expanded into many branches. Each tip is a tiny mouth through which the plant drinks the all-important water and mineral salts. Root tips exercise great ingenuity; they feel their way underground, touching here, recoiling there, and searching out the elements necessary to the plant’s economy with wonderful sagacity.

The actual absorption is done by minute filaments or hairs which take in water and its dissolved contents by osmotic action. They secrete a digestive fluid which renders certain minerals soluble, and by a strange intelligence, select the kind and amount of material they take in. In certain groups of plants, notably the Legumes, colonies of Bacteria take the place of root hairs, and by a reciprocal action, provide the plant with the nitrogenous elements which it craves.

The principal food of most vital importance taken in by the roots is nitrogen. Nitrogen is one of the basic elements of protoplasm, the life fluid of the living cell. Where there is life, there is nitrogen. Sulphur, phosphorous, silica, iron and other elements are also needed in small quantities.

The root hairs are constructed so as to allow fluids to pass in but not out. The continual absorption of water results in a mechanical pressure which automatically forces the sap up through the stem to all parts of the plant. The process is aided by the evaporation of water from the leaves, through the partial vacuum created by them at the top of the system. Pushed from below and pulled from above, the sap of a tree, for instance, moves with a propulsive power greater than the blood pressure of the strongest animal.

Above the roots and the stem of the developing plant are the branches. Their function is too well known to need much comment. They raise the leaves up into the air and the light. They act as conduits for ascending and descending sap. They give the plant strength and rigidity. Each main stem is a clever bit of plant engineering, so built as to withstand all kinds of heavy strains and stresses.

The leaves of our seedling are extremely important parts of its anatomy. Pluck them off and it will die in a few hours. They are mouths, stomachs and lungs all in one. Their surfaces are broad and flat, in order that they may catch and devour every particle of carbon dioxide which comes their way. To us, carbon dioxide is a negligible part of the atmosphere, but out of this intangible product of combustion, arising from fires, breathed out by animals and expelled by volcanoes and hot springs, the tallest tree builds its greatest structure. Is it any wonder that it takes so long!

In the inner tissue of each leaf is a substance called chlorophyll. It is the material which gives leaves their green colour. It is one of the most important substances in plantdom. Under the influence of sunlight, this chlorophyll takes the carbon dioxide of the air, and, with water and certain minerals, makes starch, the raw material of plant construction. This process, called photosynthesis, goes on while the sun shines, and stops with the approach of darkness. The necessity of plenty of light cannot be overestimated.

In the manufacture of starch, oxygen occurs as a by-product. As the plant has no use for this element, it is breathed out from the surface of the leaves. From the standpoint of man, this makes plants atmospheric purifiers. At night, when the making of starch is suspended, there is often a superabundance of carbon dioxide within plant structures. It is this gas which is now exhaled, though in very small amounts. Some authorities maintain that the excess of carbon dioxide is contained in water absorbed by the roots. In the daytime this is welcomed as additional starch material, but at night there is no use for it.

Another substance which is always present in excess of plant needs is water. It is essential as a tissue builder and also as a carrier of nourishment. Its continual evaporation from the leaf surfaces furnishes one of the sources of motive power for the circulatory system. The rate of evaporation is controlled by the stomata, little pores or mouths which have contractible lips. In the Lilac there are as many as one hundred and twenty thousand stomata to the square inch. They are nearly always located on the under surface of the leaves.