Morphology of shoot system
Shoot stem contain stem , leavers , panicle , spikelet and grain.
a. Culm or stem :
- made up of series of nodes and internodes in the alternate orders.
- The nodes bear a leaf and lower nodes a bud , whichmay grow into a tiller or shoot.
- The primary tillers gve rise to secondary tillers , which give rise to tertiary tillers.
- The mature internode is hallow , hairless and varies in length , generally increasing from the lower to the upper internodes.
- The leaf blade is attached to the node by the leaf sheath.
b. Leaves :
- Leaves are sessile in nature .
- Leaves no. are more in primary tiller.
c. Panicle :
- The rice inflorescence is called panicle.
- It is a group of spikelets born on the uppermost node of the culm.
- Panicle bears primary and secondary branches.
- Branches bear spikelets.
d. Spikelets :
- A single spikelets contains a single flower of floret.
- Flower is found within the outer glumes (lemma and plaea) which is called hull.
- Lodicules becomes turgid pushing lmmae and palea apart thus opens the flowerout for pollination.
- After pollination , emma and palea are closed.
