CONTROL AND COORDINATION
• In animals, some cells must change shape
in order for movement to happen.
• Instead of the specialised proteins found
in animal muscle cells, plant cells change
shape by changing the amount of water
in them, resulting in swelling or shrinking,
and therefore in changing shapes.
Movement Due to Growth
• Some plants like the pea plant climb up
other plants or fences by means of
tendrils.
• These tendrils are sensitive to touch.
• When they come in contact with any
support, the part of the tendril in contact
with the object does not grow as rapidly
as the part of the tendril away from the
object.
• This causes the tendril to circle around
the object and thus cling to it.
• Plants respond to stimuli slowly by
growing in a particular direction.
• Because this growth is directional, it
appears as if the plant is moving.
• Environmental triggers such as light, or
gravity will change the directions that
plant parts grow in.
• These directional, or tropic, movements
can be either towards the stimulus, or
away from it.
• Tropic Movements
• When the stimulus has a particular
direction and movement of plant occurs
in the direction of the stimulus (either
towards the stimulus or in the opposite
direction), this movement is called as
tropic movement.
Phototropic Movement
• Stimulus-light
• In two different kinds of phototropic
movement, shoots respond by bending
towards light while roots respond by
bending away from it.
• The movement of the plant part in response
to light is called phototropic movement.
• The phenomenon involved is called
phototropism.
• The shoot grows towards light, while the
growth of root is away from the light.
Geotropic Movement
• Stimulus- gravity
• The roots of a plant always grow
downwards while the shoots usually
grow upwards and away from the earth.
• This upward and downward growth of
shoots and roots, respectively, in
response to the pull of earth or gravity is,
obviously, geotropism
• Hydrotropic Movement
• Stimulus-water
• It is the growth of the plant in response
to water.
• The phenomenon involved in this is
called hydrotropism.
• Chemotropic Movement
• Stimulus - chemical
• It is the growth of the plant in response
to a chemical stimulus.
• The phenomenon involved is called
chemotropism
• E.g. growth of pollen tube towards ovules
during fertilization.