Hypocotyl

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Hypocotyl

Hypocotyl is a botanical

Botany

Botany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the Scientific method of plant life and development....
term for a part of a germinating

Germination

Germination is the process whereby growth emerges from a period of dormancy. The most common example of germination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an flowering plant or gymnosperm....
seedling of a seed

Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
plant

Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
. As the plant embryo

Embryo

An embryo is a multicellular organism ploidy eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, Egg , or germination....
grows at germination, it sends out a shoot called a radicle
Radicle

In botany, the radicle is the first part of a seedling to emerge from the seed during the process of germination. The radicle is the embryonic root of the plant, and grows downward in the soil....
that becomes the primary root and penetrates down into the soil

Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
. After emergence of the radicle, the hypocotyl emerges and lifts the growing tip (usually including the seed coat) above the ground, bearing the embryonic leaves (called cotyledon
Cotyledon

A cotyledon is a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant. Upon germination, the cotyledon may become the embryonic first leaf of a seedling....
s) and the plumule that gives rise to the first true leaves.

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Encyclopedia

Hypocotyl is a botanical

Botany

Botany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the Scientific method of plant life and development....
term for a part of a germinating

Germination

Seed

Plant

Embryo

Soil

Plant stem

A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaf, inflorescence , conifer cones or other stems etc....
.

The early development of a monocot

Monocotyledon

Monocotyledons or monocots are one of two major groups of flowering plants that are traditionally recognised, the other being dicotyledons or dicots....
seedling like cereal

Cereal

Cereals, or cereal grains, are mostly Poaceae cultivated for their edible brans or fruit seeds . Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple foods....
s and other grasses

Poaceae

Poaceae or Gramineae is a family in the Class Liliopsida of the Magnoliophyta. Plants of this family are usually called grasses; the shrub- or tree-like plants in this family are called bamboo ....
is somewhat different. A structure called the coleoptile

Coleoptile

Coleoptile is the pointed protective sheath covering the emerging shoot in cotyledon such as oats and grasses. Coleoptiles have two vascular bundles, one on either side....
, essentially a part of the cotyledon, protects the young stem and plumule as growth pushes them up through the soil. A mesocotyl — that part of the young plant that lies between the seed (which remains buried) and the plumule — extends the shoot up to the soil surface, where secondary roots develop from just beneath the plumule. The primary root from the radicle may then fail to develop further. The mesocotyl is considered to be partly hypocotyl and partly cotyledon (see scutellum
Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
).

Not all monocots develop like the grasses. The onion

Onion

Onion is a term used for many plants in the genus Allium. They are known by the common name "onion" but, used without qualifiers, it usually refers to Allium cepa....
develops in a manner similar to the first sequence described above, the seed coat and endosperm (stored food reserve) pulled upwards as the cotyledon extends. Later, the first true leaf grows from the node between the radicle and the sheath-like cotyledon, breaking through the cotyledon to grow past it.

In some plants, the hypocotyl becomes enlarged as a storage organ

Storage organ

A storage organ is a part of a plant specifically modified for storage of energy or water. Storage organs often grow underground, where they are better protected from attack by herbivores....
. Examples include cyclamen

Cyclamen

Cyclamen is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants, traditionally classified in the family Primulaceae, but in recent years reclassified in the family Myrsinaceae....
, gloxinia

Gloxinia

Gloxinia can refer to:*The genus Gloxinia of flowering plants in the family Gesneriaceae*The plant species Sinningia speciosa, formerly classified in the genus Gloxinia and still commonly known by that name, in the family Gesneriaceae...
and celeriac

Celeriac

Celeriac is also known as 'celery root,' 'turnip-rooted celery' or 'knob celery'. It is a cultivar of celery, grown as a root vegetable for its large and well-developed hypocotyl rather than for its plant stem and leaf....
.

Hypocotyl

See also