Posts filed under Trees
Terminal Buds and Their Buddies
What is a terminal bud anyhow? It sounds like a bud that is about to depart the botanical world. Most plants, including trees and shrubs, have buds.
It turns out that there are several different kinds of buds. They all contain the promise of the future growing year but serve different purposes.
A terminal bud is one that grows at the very tip of a branch, twig, or stem. It’s in charge of how much that plant will grow in the next season. Lateral buds grow on the side of the stem or twig. When a lateral bud grows above where the leaf has been attached to the stem, they are called axillary buds.
Rogue buds may develop in unusual places on a plant. They are called adventitious buds and might develop on roots or even on the sides of mature tree trunks.
Buds can serve three purposes. A vegetative bud produces leaves or shoots. A flower bud produces a flower, or a mixed bud produces both shoots and flowers.
The terminal bud produces cells that make the stem grow longer. It produces cells that make leaves. It determines how much a plant will grow in height during the year.
If a terminal bud is damaged or dies back, the next closest lateral or axillary bud will step up and take over. It becomes the terminal bud of that stem or twig.
A rose bud can be a terminal bud if it is on the tip of the plant. It is the biggest bud and will bloom first. A head of cabbage is an extremely large terminal bud and brussels sprouts are large lateral buds.
Buds are usually formed at or near the end of the previous growing season. They are small and often hidden by scale structures. They stay dormant until the days lengthen and warm in the early spring. Then they begin their enormous job of bringing the tree or plant to life for another growing season. They swell in size until the new shoot or leaf or flower bursts from its hiding place.
Spring has arrived.
Submitted by Bonnie Hinman
Photos from internet stock
Earth...Our Planet...Our Home Sweet Home!
If you are looking for other ideas to transform and invest in our community, visit the official Earth Day website at www.earthday.org. We invite you to explore our archived website blogs for more localized investments at www.chertglades.org. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Check out the Missouri Department of Conservation at www.mdc.mo.gov and find details on outdoor activities, discovering nature, and many other conservation-friendly topics. We all provide the spark needed to keep our planet earth the very best home sweet home!
Other resources:
What makes a home? A home provides shelter and comfort to safely weather all of life’s storms. We want our home to be a peaceful, playful place where friends and family feel welcome. In order to thrive, share, and better care for others, we invest in our home. As another Earth Day approaches, it is a good time to think about how we might “invest” in our one and only planet Earth, the home for all of us!
Joplin is celebrating Earth & Arbor Day on Saturday, April 22nd. (click here for event details). This year’s theme, “A New Earth,” recognizes the importance of investing in nature and the native plants that sustain us. In order to maintain healthy communities and keep them content and growing, all of us must invest the limited resources of our planet in new and potentially transformative ways.
The Missouri Master Naturalist, Chert Glades Chapter will offer several informative, creative booths at this year’s event. They are meant to suggest and inspire ideas for actions you can take. Simple choices and small investments can bring surprisingly large returns! Since we share this planet with all creatures, great and small, we need an investment we all can get behind!
Planting for pollinators, and creating more effective outdoor lighting are just two changes that are already making wiser use of resources. Do you know how and why this helps planet Earth? Come play with us and find out! We will have sample native plant ideas, tempt you to paint birds real and imagined with watercolors, craft constellation viewers, and discover citizen science projects for both kids and families.
By: Amera Wild, an active member of Missouri Master Naturalist, Chert Glades Chapter, Missouri Stream Team, Conservation Federation of Missouri, Missouri Prairie Foundation, Wildcat Glades Friends Group, Dark Sky International, The Missouri Birding Society, and the Trumpeter Swan Society
