Patta Patta Boota Boota Haal Hamara Jane Hai, this line is a part of a couplet composed by one of the genius poet of Urdu, Mir Taqi Mir Akbarabadi, Dehlavi summa Lakhnavi.
पत्ता पत्ता बूटा बूटा हाल हमारा जाने है
जाने न जाने गुल ही न जाने बाग़ तो सारा जाने है
پتا پتا بوٹا بوٹا حال ہمارا جانے ہے
جانے نہ جانے گل ہی نہ جانے باغ تو سارا جانے ہے
Every leaf & plant knows my condition
Only the flower is unaware. Even entire garden is aware.
Do we find the echo of this creativity in the poetry of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib as well, the city mate of Shahanshah-e-Ghazal, Urdu critics like Gopichand Narang and Hali including others can find out? I am habitual of reading the text and enjoy it.
I am not here to dissect the shades of meaning enshrined in the diction of the couplet, but morphology of the plant’s patta is the subject matter of my post. “Morphology of Flowering Plants”, Chapter – 05 of the Unit-2 ‘Structural Organization in Plant and Animals’ prescribed in NEET exam has a section 5.3 on “The Leaf” – Patta – Patta
“The leaf (Patta – Patta) is lateral, generally flattened structure borne on the stem. It develops at the node and bears a bud in its axil. The axillary bud later develops into a branch. Leaves originate from shoot apical meristems and arranged in an acropetal order. They are the most important vegetative organs for photosynthesis.
A typical patta consists of three main parts: Leaf base, petiole and lamina. The leaf is attached to the stem by the leaf base and may bear two lateral small leaf like structures called stipules. In monocotyledons, the leaf base expands into a sheath covering the stem partially or wholly. In some leguminous plants the leaf base may become swollen, which is called the pulvinus. The petiole help hold the blade to light. Long thin flexible petioles allow leaf blades to flutter in wind, thereby cooling the leaf and bringing fresh air to leaf surface. The lamina or the leaf blade is the green expanded part of the leaf with veins and veinlets. There is, usually, a middle prominent vein, which is known as the midrib. Veins provide rigidity to the leaf blade and act as channels of transport for water, minerals and food materials. The shape, margin, apex, surface and extent of incision of lamina varies in different in different leaves.”
The subsection 5.3.1 of the section 5.3 of the chapter 05 Morphology of Flowering Plants deals with venation:
“The arraignment of veins and the veinlets in the lamina of leaf is termed as venation. When the veinlets form a network, the venation is termed as reticulate. When the veins run parallel to each other within a lamina, the venation is termed as parallel. Leaves (Patta) dicotyledonous plants generally possess reticulate venation, while parallel venation is the characteristic of most monocotyledons.”
Whereas the subsection 5.3.2 describes Types of Leaves:
“A leaf (Patta) is said to be simple, when its lamina is entire or when incised, the incisions do not touch the midrib. When the incisions of the lamina reach up of to the midrib breaking it into a number of leaflets, the leaf is called compound. A bud is present in the axil of petiole in both simple and compound leaves, but not in the axil of leaflet of the compound leaf.
The compound leaves may be of two types. In a pinnately compound leaf a number of leaflets are present on a common axis, the rachis, which represents the midrib of the leaf as in neem.
In Palmately compound leaves, the leaflets are attached are at a common point, i.e. at the tip of petiole, as in silk cotton.”
Phyllotaxy is the last subsection 5.3.3 of the section 5.3 of the chapter 5 dealing with the morphology of the flowering plants.
“Phyllotaxy is the pattern of arrangement of leaves on the stem or branch. This is usually of three types – alternate, opposite and whorled. In alternate type of phyllotaxy, a single leaf arises at each node in alternate manner, as in China rose, mustard and sun flower plants. In opposite type, a pair of leaves arise at each node and lie opposite to each other as in Calotropis and guava plants. If more than two leaves arise at a node and form a whorl, it is called whorled, as in Alstonia.”
When we dive deep in the section 5.3 of the chapter 05 Morphology of Flowering Plants, a number of terms seem to be keywords to understand the morphology of patta, that have been bolded in the chapter – axillary bud, leaf base, pulvinus, petiole, lamina, leaf blade, venation, reticulate, parallel, simple leaf, compound leaf, pinnately compound leaf, rachis, palmately compound leaves, phyllotaxy, alternate phyllotaxy, opposite phyllotaxy and whorled with others. I would describe these important keywords for NEET aspirants in a separate post. (Hamid Siddiqui)
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