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EXAMINING LEAVES AND FLOWERS When we examined leaves and stems, we talked a little bit about flowers on some trees growing out of nodes, and later, leaves grow from the same nodes. People who study plants ("botanists") have names for every kind of plant part. Some names are used for many things, and then are made special by added words. There are names, and other words, that are used when describing plants that are also used in different kinds of studies. One example of sharing words and names is the word "appendage" (pronounced "ap-pend-age"). Your fingers are appendages of your hands. Ears are appendages of your head. To make the word "appendage" more special to each kind of appendage, we say that your fingers are "jointed appendages" and your ears are "unjointed appendages." Why do you think that is? Anything that grows out from something else, and is an important part of the main body, can be called an appendage. On a tree, the limbs are appendages; on the limbs, the twigs, or smaller stems that grow from the limbs, are appendages of the limbs. The leaves that grow from the stems are appendages, and so are the flowers. Leaves and flowers are both appendages of stems, but they are very different from each other. We must be like trees. Our bodies, between the tops of our legs and the beginning of our necks, are called "trunks," just like the main stem of a tree. Our legs and arms are called "limbs." Legs are "lower limbs" and arms are "upper limbs." Our heads are appendages of our trunks. Our noses are also appendages. Instead of bark on our outside, we have skin. Our homes and families are sometimes called our roots. What part of your body do you think would be a flower? Your smile! Let's look at some leaves and flowers on the same stem, and see what their differences are. One difference is that above the petiole of the leaf, there is always a bud. Sometimes the bud is so tiny you can't see it, but each leaf has a bud above it. Flowers do not have buds above them. Another difference is that the distance between leaf nodes on stems becomes farther as the plant grows, but the distance between flower nodes does not. As a plant grows, the stems get longer, and they will have more flowers, the same distance apart as when it was young. The stems will have close to the same number of leaves, but they will be farther and farther apart. This means that leaf internodes get longer over time, but flower internodes do not.  Any problems with this page? Send URL to
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