Question

Name the following-
a) The parasitic plant with yellow, slender and tubular stem
b) A plant that has both autotrophic and heterotrophic mode of nutrition
c) The pores through which leaves exchange gases

Answer 1

Hint:
- A parasitic plant is one that survives by living on another plant and derives its nutrition from it.
- It is the characteristic of insectivores plants to behave both as autotrophic and heterotrophic.
- These pores that help in gaseous exchange are also vital for photosynthesis.

Complete answer:
Let us decipher each question one by one and get to our answers.
a) Cuscuta is parasitic plant that posses yellow, slender and tubular stem. It is an ectoparasite that lives outside the body of the host. It has no chlorophyll and totally depends on the host for its nutrition. It is commonly referred to as Amar Bail in India.

b) Insectivores plants possess the characteristic of being a autotrophic and heterotrophic at the same time. As these plants make their own food they are autotrophs but they also consume the insects for fulfilling their nitrogen deficient behavior making them heterotrophs. Pitcher plant serves as an example. This plant possess pitcher like shape for catching the insects that surrounds it.

c) This is the easiest one, we all know that leaves exchange gases through stomata that is present in the form of pores in the epidermis of leaves. Stomata control their opening and closing movement through the process of transpiration.

Note: In a parasitic arrangement mostly the host is at loss and the parasitic plant gets all the benefit. Similar is the case here, Cuscuta gets all the nutrition that it requires for its survival whereas the host plant bears all the loss.

Charles Darwin was the first who wrote about insectivores plants. These plants fulfill their nutrition requirement by trapping and eating insects and thus named as insectivores plants.
Other than leaves stomata are also found in stem and other parts of a plant. Except for liverworts, every terrestrial plant group in the sporophyte generation consists of stomata.