Colleus Lab Report
Zach Sexton
December 4, 2014
Bot 121 Lab
Coleus Lab Report
1. A cutting can form an entire new plant if cutting being used has a meristem. If the cutting has no meristem, mitosis will not occur and you will end up with a dead piece of plant material. In order to successfully grow a new plant through a cutting, your plant must have adventitious root growth which in order to deliver water and nutrients to the plant. Adventitious roots are created through cell potency where cells differentiate. The hormone auxin is applied to where the cut was made, and promotes adventitious root growth. If your cutting has adventitious root growth and a meristem it shall form into an entire new plant.
2. After taking our cutting we proceeded to remove leaves from it. We do this in order to fully maximize the plants growing potential. If leaves are not removed from the cutting the plant will be using more energy and water to supply those leaves. It is best to remove leaves so that the new root growth will receive supplementary water and nutrients.
3. After observing our Coleus cuttings for the past 3 months it is apparent that significant growth occurred. The stem height along with the number of leaves on the main stem axis increased drastically, it was quite easy to observe the growth of our Coleus. Our seedlings on the other hand grew slower than our cutting. The stem height definitely increased in our seedlings but at a slow pace.
4. Planting a cutting is a way of asexually propagating a plant. Cuttings are genetically identical to the mother plant, therefore it is a new plant but it doe not have any different genetics than the mother plant.
5. Asexual propagation is beneficial in many ways such as the plant will reach maturity faster, and that you can have a genetically identical plant to the mother plant. The drawbacks of asexual propagation include lack of genetic diversity, and susceptibility to epidemics. In lab I observed how genetically identical my coleus cutting
December 4, 2014
Bot 121 Lab
Coleus Lab Report
1. A cutting can form an entire new plant if cutting being used has a meristem. If the cutting has no meristem, mitosis will not occur and you will end up with a dead piece of plant material. In order to successfully grow a new plant through a cutting, your plant must have adventitious root growth which in order to deliver water and nutrients to the plant. Adventitious roots are created through cell potency where cells differentiate. The hormone auxin is applied to where the cut was made, and promotes adventitious root growth. If your cutting has adventitious root growth and a meristem it shall form into an entire new plant.
2. After taking our cutting we proceeded to remove leaves from it. We do this in order to fully maximize the plants growing potential. If leaves are not removed from the cutting the plant will be using more energy and water to supply those leaves. It is best to remove leaves so that the new root growth will receive supplementary water and nutrients.
3. After observing our Coleus cuttings for the past 3 months it is apparent that significant growth occurred. The stem height along with the number of leaves on the main stem axis increased drastically, it was quite easy to observe the growth of our Coleus. Our seedlings on the other hand grew slower than our cutting. The stem height definitely increased in our seedlings but at a slow pace.
4. Planting a cutting is a way of asexually propagating a plant. Cuttings are genetically identical to the mother plant, therefore it is a new plant but it doe not have any different genetics than the mother plant.
5. Asexual propagation is beneficial in many ways such as the plant will reach maturity faster, and that you can have a genetically identical plant to the mother plant. The drawbacks of asexual propagation include lack of genetic diversity, and susceptibility to epidemics. In lab I observed how genetically identical my coleus cutting