Over the last week or so, there has been a huge development in my plant, growing from the previous 4.5cm to 13cm as of today. Along with the massive increase in height, my plant has began to flower beautifully, with several axillary buds still in the process of blooming into additional flowers.
The leaves of my plant still resemble the shape of an Oak trees leaves, growing larger each day to absorb more sunlight for energy. My plant is now starting to form cotyledons which will eventually start to wither throughout the end of it's life cycle.
It was a necessity to pluck off the several axillary buds to conserve the plants energy and allow it to live longer. Today was also the day that cross pollination started, by gluing a dead bee to a skewer and transferring the pollen from another plant onto my plant.
One of the seeds has started to bloom, growing rather tall for it's development in the life cycle. However, the other seed that was planted is still in the process of blooming.
Leaves also have a variety of internal structures, which allow plants to survive in their habitats. The blade is the flattened body of the leaf. Nodes are points where the leaves are positioned along. An internode is the distance between two nodes. Petioles are leaf stalks that allows each leaf to be connected to the stem. Net Venation is where vascular tissue branches and re-branches throughout the whole leaf.
Parallel Venation is where vascular tissue runs from the petiole to the leaf tip without joining one another. A simple keaf is a single, undivided blade.
A compound Leaf is a blade divided into two or more leaflets.
The root system is rather simple however, it still generally more complex than one may think. There are root tips with root caps, secondary and tertiary roots, primary roots and young secondary roots.
Plant cells divide by mitosis in specific areas called meristems. The meristems at the root tips and shoot tips (terminal buds) are called apical meristems.
Root and shoot systems begin to form in the tiny embryo within the seed. As the seed germinates, cells at the root and shoot tips divide by mitosis and lengthen. Meristems at areas other than the root and shoot tips form cylinders of tissue within roots and stems. Cell division in these cylinders. called the lateral meristems, causes an increase in the diameters of roots and stems.