Description of a Pea Plant (With Diagram)

In this article we will discuss about the description of pea plant with diagram.

Pea plant (Fig. 220) is a common annual herb cultivated during the winter for the seeds. It is a weak plant and climbs with the help of tendrils. The roots are infected by nitrogen fixing bac­teria and they form characteristic nodules.

Leaves are pinnately compound (imparipinnate), where the terminal leaflets are modified into tendrils. The leaf-base is swollen, forming pulvinus. A pair of foliaceous stipules is present. Flowers are lateral, solitary or in racemes.

They are complete, irregular, zygomorphic, bisexual and slightly perigynous. Calyx is composed of five united sepals. Corolla is papilionaceous, made up of five free petals. The largest and the outermost one is the standard or vexillum, two lateral petals are wings or alae, and the innermost two, called keel or carina, unite to form a boat-shaped body. Aestivation is vexillary.

Androecium consists of ten stamens, nine united to form a bundle, one remaining free, diadelphous. Gynoecium is monocarpellary, one-chambered with ovules in two series. Placentation is marginal. Ovary is elongated and superior.

Fruit is a legume dehiscing by both the sutures. Seeds are exalbuminous and germination is hypogeal. The plant is the sporophyte; the gametophytes, represented by pollen tube and embryo-sac, are extremely reduced and depen­dent on the sporophyte.