Voltaire B.

Dupo Plant Dissection Handbook

DST – Physics Biology A
Common Name: Tomato Plant

Scientific Name: Solanum Lycopersicon

The tomato is one of the most common plants cultivated and consumed by man. The
familiarity with its fruit and the uses of its fruit makes it perfect to study since I could
relate to it and make use of its end product at the end of the course. I would recommend
that the material on this dissection journal should be used by second year high school
students studying biology as an extension activity.

Morphology of Tomato Plants

The tomato plant is a herbaceous dicot. Its flowers are bisexual and need to be pollinated
by wind or insects. During when its seed germinates it erupts with two cotyledon leaves
that fall off when sufficient supply of true leaves are available. Its leaves are smaller in
area at when near the base and larger on the higher branches. Its fruit is classified as a
berry.

Measurements of sample plant

Criteria Measured
Value
Status Flowering
Age 49 days
Shoot Length 96 cm
Root Length 8 cm
Number of Leaves 109
Number of Open Flowers 1
Number of Flower Buds 7
Number of Branches 12
Top Stem Circumference 1.5
Base Stem Circumference 2.5 cm
Base Stem Diameter 6mm

Dissection Materials:

 Plain white paper

 Blade / Cutter (if you are going to use a double edged blade make sure to tape on
blade to prevent injury)
 Tape Measure (with cm scale) / Ruler (with cm scale)
 Bottle
 Food Coloring Red
 Water
 LED Torch (Lighter Torch available from traders usually found in lighters)

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Voltaire B. Dupo Plant Dissection Handbook
DST – Physics Biology A
Dissection Instructions:

1. Pull out your tomato plant from its plot.

2. Shake off some of the soil held by the roots.
3. Clean off the remaining soil on the roots by flushing them with water and shaking
the roots.
4. Observe your root its structure and color.

Image 1. Non - dyed Root

5. Take your bottle fill it to around ¼ of its to full capacity with water
6. Mix four teaspoons of food coloring with the water.
7. Place your root into the food coloring mix

Image 2. Root being placed in jar with dyed water.

8. Let it absorb the food coloring for 2-7 hours

9. After 2 hours of absorption remove the plant from colored water solution.
10. Wash the roots and make sure that they don’t drip colored water.
11. Set down the plain sheet of paper on your desk.
12. Place the plant root section on top of the paper.
13. Take out your measuring tape and measure 8 cm from the end of root going to the
shoot.
14. Place your blade on the end of the 8 cm measured section and cut.
15. Take a look at the cross sectional area of the root.

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Voltaire B. Dupo Plant Dissection Handbook
DST – Physics Biology A

Image 3. Dyed areas of the root cross-section

16. Red stained areas are the parts that allow for the absorption and conduction of
fluids and minerals to the plant.
17. Get your torch
18. Turn on your Torch
19. Set the crosswise sample on top of the torch.
20. Observe the degree of red staining for the cross sectional cut sample.

Image 4. Dyed Cross Sectional Sample under LED Torch Light

You can see that the middle has been stained more than its sides there are also white
spots present in the lit sample.

21. Cut off around 0.5 cm from the start of the cross sectional cut. This is to be used
for comparison purposes later on.
22. Cut your tap root lengthwise.
23. Examine the lengthwise cut tap root.

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Voltaire B. Dupo Plant Dissection Handbook
DST – Physics Biology A

Image 5. Tap Root Sliced lengthwise or in the vertical axis showing dyed areas.

24. Get your cutter or blade.

25. Peel off the lateral or branch roots from the tap root.
26. Set the blade around 10mm away from the top branch root.
27. Cut into the tomato plant skin and move your cutting blade towards the selected
end of the tap root
28. You will get two sections after cutting. These sections are the branch root with
plant skin and the tap root with an exposed side
29. Turn on your LED torch
30. Place the tap root sample with two exposed sides on top of the LED Light
31. Observe the degree of dye absorption. You may see 5 distinct areas of different
concentration.

Image 6. Dyed and dissected tap root with both sides exposed under LED White
Light

32. Obtain another sample and do the dissection again but this time don’t dye the
sample.
33. Cut a cross-section of the root
34. Draw and label the parts of the cross sectional area

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Voltaire B. Dupo Plant Dissection Handbook
DST – Physics Biology A

Pericycle Epidermis
Phloem Cortex
Xylem Endodermis

Image 7. Cross Sectional Dissection of a non stained sample.

35. Cut a horizontal section

Epidermis
Pericycle Cortex
Phloem Endodermis
Xylem

36. Compare the stained areas with text book illustration and figure out which stained
areas are what parts.

The cortex is really coloured white in the unstained root it managed to

absorb lots of the coloured water. The epidermis is coloured white and adapts the
colour of the fluid that it absorbs. The real colour of the lightly stained area is
green and the unstained area is really coloured white. The unstained parts are the
phloem it is unstained since it brings materials from the leaves not from the roots.
This green coloured area is the pericycle and parts of the vascular cadium. The
central stained section is called the xylem it is in charge of bringing nutrients and
water to the leaves and stem. It doesn’t appear to be of a different colour with
respect to the vascular cadium and could be seen if it wasn’t for the stained
sample.

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Voltaire B. Dupo Plant Dissection Handbook
DST – Physics Biology A
Major Internal Parts of the Root (URA)

 Epidermis

o This part is used to protect the internal parts of the root and guards against
water loss. There is not water tight cuticle in this section of the epidermis
since water and nutrients has to pass thru it.
 Cells that exist in this section of the root is epidermal cells. Root
hairs also exist in this section of the plant.
o The epidermis may become thicker if the environment is dry so that fluid
and nutrients in the cortex may not get dried up.

 Pericycle

o This part is used in the development of new branch roots. It contains

meristems that allow it produce new (UIC)
 This section uses parenchyma cells which are basically meristems
since it creates new lateral roots.

 Endodermis

o Serves as one – way valve that allows water and nutrients into the vascular
structures. (DANA) A waxy coating is use to produce this one way
absorption effect.
o It also serves as a barrier between the cortex and pericycle tissues. (CGM)
 The endodermis is composed of parenchyma cells.

 Vascular Cylinder

o Transports nutrients and water from the roots to the different parts of the
plant.
o The vascular system consists of two tissues the xylem and phloem
 The Xylem is a structure used to transport water and nutrients in
the plant.
 The xylem is composed of two kinds of cells.
o Sclerenchyma are used as the pipes that bring
nutrients to the other parts of the plants these cells
are dead cells
o Parenchyma are the transport vessels that allow the
nutrients to move toward the other plant structures.
 The xylem sap consists of mostly water. Water the enters
the xylem is a result of outside pressure from the soil that
pushes the fluid into the root.

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Voltaire B. Dupo Plant Dissection Handbook
DST – Physics Biology A

 The Phloem is a structure used to transport the photosynthesis

products to all sides of the plant. (CGM)
 The Phloem is consists of parenchyma particularly
companion cells, fibers and sclereids.
 All the cells in the phloem are alive.

 Cortex

o Serves as a reservoir of food and nutrients for the plant and serves as the
medium to transport materials into the vascular cylinder
 The cortex consists of undifferentiated parenchyma.

End Note

This dissection activity uses only materials that are available in most homes. I
would hope that it could be used as an extension activity that the student can take home
with him. I didn’t use the microscope to identify the parts I just used the degree of
staining in the root structures. Structures that are heavily stained are exposed to the
outside fluid or serve as storage facility for water and nutrients. The epidermis, cortex
and endodermis are heavily stained since they are used to absorb, store and regulate the
entry of dyed water. Areas that are lightly stained are areas that let water and materials
pass thru them. These lightly stained areas belong to the pericycle and xylem. The non-
stained areas belong to the phloem since it brings products from the leaves to the roots
and the staining stops at the leaves.

The area of where the pericycle and vascular cylinder get separated cannot be
seen in the dissection result and a microscope may be used for the purpose of obtaining
images of this. This dissection activity must only be done after the student has gone and
read the materials so that he/she already knows what to expect with the stains. I tried to
use the normal emergency bulb lit torches but found out that they produced insufficient

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Voltaire B. Dupo Plant Dissection Handbook
DST – Physics Biology A
light. So I stuck with the LED White Light but if others where to improve this dissection
handbook they could try other artificial light sources.

The whole activity I made for my Biology A class allowed me to better appreciate
the materials printed in the textbook since I could plot the movement of the coloured
water into the plant root. I made 6 different dissections to come up with a better solution
that would allow me to see the parts with the naked eye. I found out that using a 7 hour
soaking period created the best staining possible. I also found out that it doesn’t work if I
only placed the root without the stem and leaves. I find it important to include a
comparison between the stained root sample and the stained root sample since it helps me
see the real colour and texture of the parts and it helps me visualize how they managed to
enter the structures.

Resources:

(UIC) Plant Structure and Function, University of Illinois Chicago,

http://www.uic.edu/classes/bios/bios100/labs/plantanatomy.htm

(Dana) Mike Dana Purdue University Horticulture 101 Lecture Slides Plant structure and
function Roots,
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/hort/courses/HORT101Spring/Roots/Roots.ppt

(CGM) Colorado Garden Master Volunteers, Plant Structures: Roots

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/mg/files/gardennotes/132-Roots.html

(URA) Anatomy of Plants, Universe Review, http://universe-review.ca/I10-22a-

anatomy1.jpg

(CIC) Science department Colegio Internacional de Caracas Topic 13: Plant Science
http://www.cic-caracas.org/departments/science/Topic13.php

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