Question

Cut a transverse section of a young stem of a plant from your school garden and observe it under the microscope. How would you ascertain whether it is monocot stem or dicot stem. Give reasons.

Answer 1

Hint: By the vascular bundle present in the stem, their arrangement around the cell wall, pith and other anatomy recognition can be used to identify and differentiate between the two monocot stem and dicot stem dissection in the microscopy.

Complete answer:
Monocot and dicot stem can be differentiated on the following basis:
Monocot stem dissection –
The scattered vascular bundle can be seen with no specific pattern on the cytoplasm.
The vascular bundles are usually near the cell wall with close contact with the cell wall inner membrane.
No pith can be seen in the slide.
The vascular bundle is surrounded by a large structure known to be parenchyma.
These parenchyma are present in the cortex region.
The epidermis region is large, acquiring more regions compared to the vascular bundle.
Dicot stem dissection –
The vascular bundle can be seen with a pattern of a ring formation in the cell.
Parenchyma can be seen with half present in the pith region and half surrounded by the vascular bundle.
A large ptch can be seen In the slide.
Parenchyma is also seen in a ring formation (large) around the pith.
Vascular bundles are small in size as compared to monocots.
Epidermis covers a small area as compared to monocot.

Note: The basic difference can be observed that the monocot stem dissection have scattered cells with no specific pattern whereas in dicot stem dissection organized cells with a specific pattern in all the different kind of cells like (parenchyma, vascular bundle, epidermis ) can be seen which can serve the basic differentiation between them.