What is the function of the root hairs of plants?

On our planet there are more than four hundred species of different plants, and they all perform a variety of functions. We, along with other animals, consume them for food, but with the difference that we subject plants to various kinds of processing - cook, fry, stew, canned; We make clothes, medicines, furniture from them; They supply everything alive with oxygen. For many years scientists have been studying different species, their properties, working on the selection of new species that are more resistant to the current environmental and climate conditions, and are working to preserve the vanishing, studying utility and so on, which is important both for man and for the environment as a whole. Specifically, the topic will now be touched upon, revealing such concepts as the structure of the root system, its types and functions.

What is the organ of a plant?

The organs of a part of any plant are distributed according to functions and structure. The principles of separation are the same as in animals, including humans. The ear and liver have different forms and functions, therefore they are named differently. It's the same with leaves and roots. If we talk about higher plants, then the division of organs goes to two large groups, vegetative (those that serve for growth and nutrition) and reproductive (responsible for the reproduction of their own kind). Any type of root system belongs to the vegetative organs.

The concept of a root and its functions

The root is the axial organ of the plant. First of all, it fixes plants in the soil. It also performs the function of "nutrition", and now it is about such a part of the root as the hairs. That is, the answer to the question of what function the root hairs perform is just the absorption from the soil of water and minerals necessary for the full vital activity of the plant. Also, the root system is capable of producing various substances, such as growth hormone, or various alkaloids necessary for the whole plant. These substances can move up the stem of the plant, but can accumulate in the root system itself. It can also work as a pantry - something like a cellar for useful nutrients. Plants with this root are called root vegetables.

We all know carrots, beets, radishes, which are just these root crops. What else is the root system capable of, so it is to interact with "neighbors" in a particular place of growth. So, symbiosis with other plants, with fungi or even with microorganisms is possible, and almost any type of root system is capable of this. In addition, the functions of the roots may also include vegetative reproduction. Its advantage is that a new partner does not need a partner, as in the case of sexual reproduction.

Vegetative reproduction - what is the essence of

This reproduction of a similar can happen even with the help of an ordinary leaflet. Having fallen into favorable conditions, he can start an escape, and a new begonia will appear, for example. The willow branches, tearing themselves away from the tree, can also catch on in the ground and take root. The roots are capable of the same. Some plants can form buds on the rhizome, from which new, full and identical individuals grow or tubers are formed. The most striking example, which refers to the latter case, is the potato - a guest from America, so well established in our conditions. So, the tubers that form on the roots of this plant and are actively consumed by us at the same time are used for planting and growing new potato bushes, and, consequently, for new tubers. Sprouted potatoes, even a part of it, which has at least one sprout, can give life to a new, full-bodied potato bush that does not differ from its "mother". And good conditions can favor a better development of the bush and even an increase in yield. What function the root hairs perform, all good farmers know, and therefore use such fertilizers and the method of soil treatment, after which they remove high yields of quality natural products. Of course, a lot still depends on the weather conditions for the period of growth, but this is a different matter. Let's return to vegetative reproduction.

So, such reproduction is actively used in gardening and agriculture. But along with the benefits, you can remember about the harm. So, we are talking about weeds. For a cultural economy, there is such a problem as wheat grass. The rhizomes of this plant are huge, and if damaged, they are easily restored, turning into a new plant. For example, if one rhizome is cut into four at a shallow plowing, four new weeds will soon grow. This is bad for a person, namely for the owner of the site, who wants to grow a lot of different vegetables on it, but instead gets a harvest of wheat grass. But for the plant itself, this ability is a huge plus.

An interesting case is when the rhizomes have dormant buds. This often refers to trees. When the main plant lives and thrives, these kidneys are as if in a coma. They are, they are alive, but there is no development. But if, say, cutting down a tree, these kidneys quickly become active and turn into young plants of the same species over time. These buds are trees of oak, linden, birch.

What are the main types of roots?

There are three types of roots. The main one develops from an embryonic seed. From it the lateral roots leave, which are capable of branching. There are also additional roots. They can appear on top of the plant, on stems or leaves. All together, the types of roots form an entire root system. According to the characteristics of these types, the root system is distributed by types.

Types of root systems

If the plant has a well-expressed main root, then such a root system is called a core system.

What does "well-pronounced" mean? This means that it is much thicker and longer than all the other roots that are divergent from it. Such a root system is characteristic of dicotyledonous plants. If the main root is not expressed in the plant, then such a root system is called lobed.

The main root may or may not be different from the rest.

Each root can be divided into several zones, which is responsible for a particular function.

Four separate zones, characteristic of a young root

The first zone is characterized by cells of the apical meristem. This is the division zone, or the root cover. The length of the case reaches one millimeter.

The second zone is the zone of growth, or stretching. It is due to the growth of the cells of this part, a length of only a few millimeters, the main elongation of the root occurs.

The third zone is the suction zone, or the zone of the root hairs. Here they are placed maximum - the number is measured by hundreds of pieces per millimeter square, and they are constantly absorbing nutrients from the earth that will go further into the fourth root zone - into the zone where there are no root hairs anymore, and the formation of full-fledged powerful Single plants) of the lateral roots.

Any type of root system has such zones on young roots. Between the zones there are no clear sections, they all smoothly pass into each other.

Interesting about the areas of the young root

The root cover is still called the calyptra. Its cells live no more than nine days, and then die off, having peeled off the root. In this case, there is an abundant secretion of mucus, which makes it easier for the root to grow further - deep or wide, it is not important.

It is the stretching zone that pushes the root further into the earth. When the cells of a given zone get water, they stretch out in length, and this happens until the cells are finally coarsened and they do not enter the suction zone. By the way, this zone is actually transparent in appearance.

On the place where there was once a zone of stretching, hair begins to form. But above, before the zone of holding, they at the same time begin to die. So the suction zone moves after pushing the root into the soil. The number of hairs per one square millimeter is estimated in hundreds.

Suction zone - the most important part of the root for the life of plants

Root hairs of plants, as already mentioned earlier, absorb water from the soil, mineral substances dissolved in water, which are necessary for full growth. Therefore, we will stop at this root zone and consider it in more detail.

What is a root hair?

What function the root hairs perform, we have already approximately understood. Now we need to understand how this happens, thanks to what peculiarities of the structure of these very hairs, it is possible to absorb substances from the soil. Any root hair, the description of which, in principle, can take only three lines, is actually very important.

The length of such a hair is quite small and lies in the range 0.1-8 mm, according to other data - 0.06-10 mm. The diameter of the hair may lie between five and seventy micrometers. If we talk about the structure of the root hairs, it is, for the most part, elongated cells of the root skin. Almost the whole cell is a vacuole, around which there is a thin layer of cytoplasm, and which contains the nucleus of the cell. It is located in the cytoplasm so that it is in the tip of the hair.

Structure of the suction zone

If we make a cross-section, we will see the presence of three main sections: a central cylinder, a bark and an outer covering in the form of a thin-walled skin on which root hairs form. The suction zone begins with the skin cells covered with mucus, to which the soil sticks. Thus, the absorption of vital substances from the soil is facilitated. Then comes the layer of the cortex, which acts as the protector of the central cylinder, the creator of vitamin compounds and the keeper of reserve substances, most often starch. The central cylinder is a conductive tissue through which all the elements absorbed and created in the two previous sections move upward into the plant.

Absorption and Isolation

To understand how the root hairs provide the absorption of substances from the soil, it is worth mentioning two features. First - the hair cells are able to envelop a part of the earth and literally fuse with it. The second - to better absorb the hairs release various acids (oxalic, malic, coal). It is these two features that are key in the process of plant nutrition.

The size of the root hairs system

We figured out what function the root hairs perform. But here is the question: "How are such scanty (recall, the size of one root hair - 0.1-8 mm) sprouts capable of feeding, for example, a huge birch?" The answer is simple. They take not by size, but by quantity. If we talk about the escape of rye, which is four months old, then it has about ... 14 billion root hairs. It's only ten thousand kilometers of thread, which absorbs everything and everything in its path, with an absorption area, by the way, in the area of four hundred square meters. What to say about the huge plants, the root system of which spreads to many meters around the trunk in the upper layers of the earth (for example, the roots of the walnut spread to a distance of up to twenty meters around them), or those that let the roots deep into the earth (the same Greek A nut can penetrate to a depth of up to six or seven meters).

The example tree walnut well fixes the soil and protects it from landslides precisely because of its root system. The person uses these features to preserve areas at risk of landslides, and it is also unreasonable that the same person cuts down forests that have their roots in the mountainous terrain.

Life span of a hair root

The formation of such root organs occurs relatively quickly. Sometimes for this purpose something is enough about one day - for each plant the timing is different. But the hairs live for ten to twenty days. They are gradually replaced by new ones, growing after the advance of the root in the soil at the place where the root growth zone became hard, moving further behind the root sheath.

Thus, we learned what function the root hairs perform, without going too deep into the terminology of biological sciences that is difficult for simple ears and, in addition, considering in passing the individual features of the root system as a whole.