Plant Anatomy, Six Easy to Understand Structures of a Plant

Plant Anatomy Introduction

Learning plant anatomy can come in handy when you are starting to learn about the uses of herbs. Plants play a very important role in nature and in our lives. Trees, grass, herbs, vegetables and so many more plant types help provide us with oxygen, food and even have medical benifitis. a holistic lifestyle incorporates the use of natural resources such as plants to help prevent ailments and relieve existing ones.

Each part of a plant can be useful for different purposes. You will find in many cases, there is value in all parts of a plant, but knowing which portion to use for what purpose is important. For example, different parts of the plant can be various medical remedy preparations. There can be parts of a plant that are toxic in comparison to other parts which are useful. Being able to understand the basics of plant anatomy or phytotomy can help you identify which portion of the plant contains the chemical properties you may be after.

How you prepare the plant for use is another reason why it’s important to know plant anatomy. Certain parts of the plant are more delicate than others so preparing those parts may require more delicate methods. Many herbal remedy recipes will require you to use a specific portion or part of a plant. Knowing some base knowledge of a plant can help you gather the correct part for your recipes.

To help define basic plant anatomy, I have listed out the basic sections of a plant.

Quick Reference for a Plant’s Anatomy

• Root/bulb//tubers/rhizome/bulb
• Leaves
• Stem/bark/corm
• Flower/pollen/buds
• Seed/nut/cereal/peas/bean/seed pod/kernal
• Fruit/peel

Vegetative Portion of Plant Anatomy

Roots

Roots are typically the subterranean portion of the plant. Keep in mind there are plants where the roots also do their job above ground as well, such as climbing plants. Roots can be tubular shaped, or they can be a bulb, tubers or rhizomes. They are the plants’ anchor, keeping the plant in place and giving it a sturdy base against nature’s elements. Roots help pull in oxygen from the environment around them and to absorb nutrients from the soil and drinking water.

In many plants the roots may form rhizomes, bulbs, and tubers. These are bulbous fleshy portions of the root or stem that can store nutrients for a plant, sort of like a plant’s storage cabinet. Corms are solid bulbs that grow underground and are also a portion of the plants’ stem. Crocus and freesia are two examples of plants that have corms at the plant base. Rhizomes are thick fleshy shape portion of a plants root system which can shoot off into a new plant. Iris plants and bamboo are examples of plants with rhizomes.  Tubers are also the portion of a plant that grows underground, which are also very fleshy. Well-known examples of tubers are potatoes or yams.  

You may ask what is so great about a plant’s root. We have used the roots of plants for many different applications. A few examples for culinary uses are turmeric and ginger which both come from the root of a plant. Let’s not forget about the hearty potato and carrot which are the makings of a great meal. Aroma therapy constituents and other essential oils are from the root of a plant, examples including frankincense and myrrh. You can also use this section of a plant for medicinal or health purposes. Ginseng is a very well-known example of a root for this.

Leaves

Leaves play a very major role in a plant; this is where photosynthesis occurs. This is the food manufacturing center for a plant where food is generated for a plant’s growth and repair. Leaves gather sunlight as chlorophyll which aid the photosynthesis process. Leaves consist of veins called the lamina, which provide structure and disperses nutrients. The petiole of a leaf is essentially the leaf stem, and it provides support and transports nutrients from the stem into the veins. The lamina is the leaf blade or the flat section of a leaf which is where photosynthesis occurs. The lamina of a leave contains tiny pores known as the stomata, which help exchange oxygen, carbon dioxide and water for the plant.

Leaves help with the exchange of gases that a plant needs for photosynthesis. Plants exchange gases through the stomata. Carbon dioxide plays an important part in photosynthesis and plant growth, it is essentially what a plant breaths. Plants also bring in and exhale oxygen through the stomata. Oxygen helps generate carbon dioxide and to break down glucose and water. Another function of a leaf is for cooling off a plant through a process known as transpiration. Water vapor is pulled into the leaves through the stem and through transpiration is released as water vapor through the leaf stomata, which helps to cool off the plant.

Leaves of herbs are useful for culinary spices and food, pharmaceutical products, essential oils, cosmetic products and for many other alternative uses. Parsley and basil are well-known spices and spinach is also a popular plant for salads. Many of these can also be used to make teas, tinctures, and other herbal preparations. You can even use many plant leaf preparations in cleaning products such as mint or rosemary. There really are endless uses for this portion of a plant.

Check out my article on my article on Ten Great Ways for Medical Herbal Preparations

Stem

The stem of a plant performs numerous tasks including nutrient transportation and storage. It also serves as the base framework structure to support and hold the flower or plant head up, just as your wall’s hold your roof up. The stem holds up the leaves of a plant and plays an important role in a plant’s photosynthesis. The stem carries or transports the water, minerals and nutrients to the plant’s leaves, flowers, and seeds, so they can create the energy and the sugars a plant needs to live off of. Essentially the stem acts like a straw. The stem also is a storage center for the plant’s food.

A plant’s stem provides many benefits for humans, even if they tend to be very fibrous and starchy.  We have historically used this portion of a plant for medicinal purposes and even used this section to make clothing. Hemp is a very well-known fabric that comes from fiber’s of the Cannabis Sative plant stem. Flax is another well-known plant for providing clothing material from the fiber of stems. This material was used back by the Egyptian’s hundreds of years ago.

The stem can contain many useful materials, including bark, wood, resin, oleoresin, and gum. Bark has been used to make clothing, ropes, and has even been to cultivate the very well-known spice, Cinnamon. Resin is another material that the plant’s stem generates. It consists of various organic compounds from the stem which is viscous. Resins are typically help provide protection for a plant from disease and insects. We have used resins to generate varnish, lacquer, soap and for medicinal and pharmaceutical use. Gum is found under the bark of various plant species. Benefits include use for adhesives or binding agents in food, medicine, or cosmetic products.

Reproductive Portions of Plant Anatomy

Flower

The flower of a plant can be a very beautiful part of the plant. This is the portion that can be very colorful. Aside from the aesthetically pleasing nature of a flower it has a very important function as it contains the flower’s reproductive organs.  The term for the male portion of the flower is the stamen, which is where the pollen comes from. The female organ is the pistil. Once the pistil is pollinated a seed can form. The base of the flower is called the sepal, and typically consists of green leaves, remnants of the initial bud. The petals are the colorful portion of the plant and are what many people will call the flower. The colorful petals attract birds and bees which help pollinate the plant. The petals also help protect the organs and also play a part in helping to pollenate the pistil.

The flowers of a plant are useful in many ways. They are cultivated not only for their beautiful color and scent but also for a food source. Hibiscus petals and dandelions are great additions to your salad. Flowers are also harvested for their pharmaceutical and cosmetic use. Calendula has great benefits for the skin as it can soothe irritation and is an antioxidant. Another great example is Chamomile as it has great medicinal use. It can help symptoms of hay fever, inflammation and even muscle spasms.  

The floral part of a plant can be very delicate and typically requires a much more delicate extraction process. Teas, decoctions, and infusions are very well known treatments which have usfull purposes. The tea and floral water preparations help make lotions, mouth and eye rinses and many other useful products.

Fruit

When a plant flower matures and is pollinated a fruit will grow. This is essentially the grown ovary of the plant. Examples of a plant fruit are bananas, apples, and tomatoes.  The fruit of the plant has a few important functions. It acts like a protective shell for the plant’s seeds. It also stores materials that help feed a plant. Fruit attracts animals as a food source which in turn helps to spread mature seeds so a new plant can grow.

We are very well aware of the use of fruit as food. We eat fruits and vegetables all of the time for their nutritional value. They have other useful benefits as well. One example is the luffa whose fruit makes a great scrubbing device. Fruits can also make great tea and are useful in many medical preparations. One popular preparation is elderberry syrup, which is the fruit from the elderberry plant. This syrup is a great source of vitamin C and antioxidants, but also may treat symptoms of the colds and the flu.

Many plant fruits have a hard outer shell, which helps protect the fruit and the seeds.  Examples of such hard-shelled fruits are gourds or nuts.  Dried shells are very unique for crafting, arrangements and potpourri. Dried hollow gourds can create birdhouses, baskets and bowls, bottles and other utensils. Nut shells are the actual fruit of many nut plants which contain the seed or the nut. These hard shells are in thickener, composts, and even cleaning.

Seed

A mature seed contains all the elements to produce a new plant. This includes the embryo, the endosperm, and the seed coat. The embryo contains the root and stem of the new plants. The endosperm contains tissue which consists of nutrients needed for the new plant’s growth. The see coat is a shell that provides a protective barrier for the delicate embryo and endosperm parts of the seed. Once a mature seed is separated from the original plant it can propagate and grow into a new plant.  

Plant seeds are pretty fascinating since they store well for a year or two completely dried and still be able to germinate if conditions are right. Due to the long-term storage and the nutrition stored in seeds, humans have cultivated them for many uses. We of course include them as food additives, seasoning, to create flour, and even alcohols. One odd found and very popular use of seeds is for making clothing. Cotton is the coating of the cotton seed that has been harvested for years to make the very familiar day to day fabric we use in many items.

There are useful oils and essential oils we extract from plant seeds that have amazing medicinal and cosmological use. This includes extracting oils such as sunflower oil, sweat almond oil, grapeseed oil or sesame oil. Many of these oils a9re for culinary purposes as well. Extraction of Essential oils from various seeds is a great example for medicinal and cosmetic use. A few include carrot seed, nutmeg and dill seed essential oils. There are of course many more uses, but these are just examples.

Conclusion for Understanding Plant Anatomy

We utilize plants for a lot of different purposes including aromatherapy, cosmetics, for message therapy, for purposes and even culinary use. It may even just be that you want to spruce up your house and add some color or a wonderful smell to your living environment. If you are moving to us plants to improve your daily life knowing a bit about plant anatomy can help you understand what portion of the plant to gather for your purpose of use. It may be more information than what you are looking for, but I will say for me it was helpful to understand when I was researching. I use all parts of a plant and I like to know what each part is and what there uses are.

Hopefully this article helps break things down a bit for understanding plant anatomy.