What is the botanical nature of the 'eyes' present on a potato tuber (Solanum tuberosum)?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D. Nodes bearing axillary buds subtended by vestigial scale leaf scars
- Step 1: A potato tuber is an underground modified stem developed from the swollen tips of stolons.
- Step 2: The 'eyes' of a potato represent the nodes of the stem.
- Step 3: Each eye features a ridge representing a scale leaf scar and harbors one or more dormant axillary buds capable of sprouting into leafy shoots.
Answer
Nodes bearing axillary buds subtended by vestigial scale leaf scars
Why not the others: 'Adventitious roots modified for vegetative anchorage' confuses stem nodes with roots; 'Lenticels modified for underwater respiration' confuses vegetative buds with aerating pores; 'Floral buds that failed to undergo anthesis' is incorrect because eyes develop from vegetative stem nodes, not floral primordia.
Practise more Morphology and Anatomy of Flowering Plants.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed NEET UG mock tests.
More Morphology and Anatomy of Flowering Plants questions
- Which plant species produces specialized respiratory roots (pneumatophores) that grow vertically upward with negative geotropism to obtain o…
- In which plants are the axillary buds modified into woody, straight, pointed thorns that protect the plant against browsing herbivores?
- Which xerophytic adaptation is characterized by a green, flattened, succulent stem that carries out photosynthesis while leaves are reduced…
- What type of phyllotaxy is observed when a single leaf arises at each node in an alternating fashion, as seen in China rose, mustard, and su…
- Which type of inflorescence is characterized by an indeterminate main floral axis that continues to grow while producing flowers laterally i…
- Which of the following flowers displays zygomorphic (bilateral) floral symmetry, meaning it can be divided into two similar halves in only o…