The goals of this laboratory exercise are to familiarize you with the vegetative morphology of flowering plants and to make you more aware of the different types of edible vegetables we use in our daily lives. Leaves, stems, and roots comprise the vegetative body of a flowering plant.
Leaves are responsible for photosynthesis.
Stems comprise the central axis and branches of a plant, a system which acts to transport photosynthates from the leaves to other organs of the plant and to transport water and nutrients from the roots. Together, leaves and stems are often referred to as shoots. Roots serve as anchors, holding the plant upright, and as sponges that extract water and nutrients from the soil. Many roots and stems are also modified for the storage of nutrients. These nutrients are in turn used by the plant to produce new growth.