Lavender - Plant Anatomy and Morphology

 There are different ways to categorize plants. One of them is, to identify if a flowering plant is a monocot or a dicot.

Figure 1Monocots vs Dicots (Holganix, 2011)

Lavandula angustifolia Mill.  is a dicot, and this gives us different information about the plant  (USDA, 2017).  The embryo produces two cotyledons, which are the seed leaves. It has net like veins which connect to the major ones. The vascular bundles in the stem are arranged to form a cylinder. If you make a cut across the stem you will see them appearing as a ring.  As typical for dicots, also lavender has a taproot system with one main root and branches from roots. Now coming to the last criterium, in the picture below you can see, the flowers consist of five floral parts. Dicots have usually four or five floral parts.

Lavender is a monoecious plant which means that it has both male and female flowers on an individual plant. Further, Lavender has a perfect flower. This means that stamen and carpels, which are the female and male sex organs. At the Stamen, pollen is produced and these contain the male sex cell. The Capel is the female part. It has an ovary at the base where eggs are produced. So, lavender has both, pollen and seed producing party (Botany, 2017). The pollen, which are produced in the stamen reaches the female pistil, it germinates on the stigma and the fertilized ovules develop into seeds. (Sadava, 2011). Further, English lavender has an indeterminate growth habit which is also why it can continue to be active for many years.

 

Figure 2 Lavandula angustifoliais flower (Lavender, 2017) References Botany, G. (2017). Lavandula angustifolia p. Mill. Retrieved from Go Botany Discover thousands of New England plants: https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/species/lavandula/angustifolia/ Holganix. (2011). The Science Behind Holganix: Monocots vs Dicots: What You Need To Know. Retrieved from Holganix: http://www.holganix.com/blog/bid/59573/The-Science-Behind-Holganix-Monocots-vs-Dicots-What-You-Need-To-Know Lavender, E. (2017). English Lavender. Retrieved from Everything Lavender: http://everything-lavender.com/english-lavender.html Sadava, H. H. (2011). Reproduction in Flowering Plants. In H. H. Sadava, Life The Science of Biology (p. 796). Gordonsville: Art Wolfe. USDA. (2017). Lavandula angustifolia Mill. Retrieved from USDA NAtural Resources Conservation Service: https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=LAAN81