What are the two main types of inflorescence with example?

 8.4.3 Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches on the stem. There are three main types of inflorescence.

1. Racemose
2. Cymose 
3. Compound

Racemose Inflorescence:

In this type of inflorescence, the main axis does not end in a flower but it continues to grow and flowers arise laterally.

Cymose inflorescence:

The determinate simple inflorescence is generally called cymose. In cymose the primary axis terminates in a flower but the growth continues through the lateral buds. These buds give rise to lateral branches which bear flowers. The outer flowers are younger and the upper flowers are older. 

In comparison, the main axis branches once or twice repeatedly in a racemose or cymose manner, and these repeated branches bear flowers. The oldest flowers are at the tip while the younger ones are away from it e.g., amaltas, wheat, rice, etc.

Significance of angiosperms to humans: Angiosperms virtually provide all plant-based food, i.e., Wheat, rice, sugar cane, maize, barley, rye, oats, etc. They provide a significant amount of livestock feed, and all important vegetables like potato, tomato, peppers, cabbage, carrot, radish, turnip, and mustard. 

A great deal of fleshy fruits like cherries, mangoes, oranges, apples, watermelon, peaches, apricots, grapes, pears, plums, and a host of others. They are a source of oils, like soybean, sunflower, mustard, coconut, and olive. 

They are good sources of dry fruits like almonds, walnuts, and pistachios. Flowering plants also provide economic resources in the form of wood, paper, and fiber (cotton, flax, and hemp). medicines (digitalis, camphor) ornamental landscaping plants, and many other uses. Do you know?

A sunflower looks like one large flower, but each head is composed of hundreds of tiny flowers called florets, which ripen to become the seeds. The average tree gives off oxygen in one year to allow four people to breathe.

SUMMARY

• The kingdom Plantae contains land plants, which manufacture their own food through photosynthesis and retain a multicellular embryo within the female. gametangium. All plants have an alternation of generations.

• Plant kingdoms include
  bryophytes, pteridophytes, gymnosperms, and angiosperms.

• Bryophytes are plants that can live in soil but are dependent on water for sexual reproduction. They possess root-like, leaf-like, and stem-like structures. The bryophytes are divided into liverworts and mosses.

• The main plant body of a bryophyte is gamete-producing and is called a gametophyte. It bears the male sex organs called antheridia and female sex organs called archegonia.

• In pteridophytes, the main plant is a sporophyte differentiated into true roots, stems, and leaves. These organs possess well-differentiated vascular tissues. The gymnosperms are plants in which ovules are not enclosed by any ovary wall. After fertilization the seeds remain exposed and, therefore, these plants are called naked-seeded plants.

• In angiosperms, the male sex organs (stamen) and female sex organs (pistil) are borne in a flower.

• The angiosperms are divided into two classes the dicotyledons and the monocotyledons.

• During the life cycle of any sexually reproducing plant, there is an alternation of generations.

•  between gamete-producing haploid gametophyte and spore-producing diploid sporophyte.