Plant stems

The stems in plants bear the leaves, seeds and flowers. The vascular tissues run along the stem that transport the minerals, sugars and water from one part of the plant to another. The green color of the stem indicate its involvement in photosynthesis. Some plants store food in their stems while some plants use stems in propogation, as wild life habitat and in wood industry. The anatomy of the monocot stems show the presence of scattered vascular bundles while in dicot stem the vascular bundles are seen arranged in the form of a ring. The anual rings are observed to have formed in the case of woody stems. The stems in plant also consists of terminal bud, bud scales, lateral buds, leaf scar, bundle scar, terminal bud scale scars and naked bud. The plant stem comprises of nodes and internodes. The woody plants develop the bark on the main stem called trunk. Based on the strength and type of stems, they exist in various forms like shoot, twig, trunk, branch, suckers, water sprouts and canes. There are several modifications observed in stems. The various stem modifications are Bulb, Corm, Rhizome, Stolon, Crown, Twining stems, Spur, Tuberous stem and Tuber.