Plant Anatomy & Physiology Course

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Plant Anatomy & Physiology Course

Written by Caitlin Reinartz

Tuesday, 16 January 2018

When I first started learning about plants, I had a lot of questions. How does a tree gets water from deep in the ground all the way up to leaves 160 feet in the air? How are plants able to survive cold winters like this one? How do seeds know when to germinate in the spring? Why are most plants green anyway? Why not blue or pink or black? Do plants communicate with one another? How do plants defend themselves from attack by insects? Whew! That's a lot of stuff to learn! The more I dug into this (no pun intended), the more I discovered how amazing, adaptable, and beautiful plants can be.

If you have many plant questions like I did, I invite you to come to my Plant Anatomy and Physiology series. All of these questions (and more!) are investigated in the science of plant physiology, which is the study of plant processes and is just chock-filled with mind-blowers. For example, when you walk through the woods in the winter and see buds at the end of the twigs on trees, you are looking at fully formed leaves and flowers, packed in nature’s most elaborate origami. Leaves for next growing season, made last growing season.

Field of native plants

Photo (above): Phyllis Bankier | Photo (upper right): Ian Dickmann

Plant Anatomy and Physiology is an in-depth course, and over the seven sessions, we will learn about plant anatomy, photosynthesis, respiration, and metabolism. We will learn about dormancy and seed germination, mineral nutrients, plant hormones, and the answers to all the questions written above! And don’t worry, we won’t get bogged down in memorizing chemical reactions, we will concentrate on the most interesting and accessible parts of a plant’s life.

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Making Memories at Winterfest Good Times on the Lagoon

Caitlin Reinartz

Caitlin Reinartz is the Forester at the Urban Ecology Center Riverside Park branch, working primarily on the Milwaukee Rotary Centennial Arboretum. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and studied Forest Management. Caitlin is a firm believer that Wisconsin is the best and most beautiful state in the union. She spent her childhood playing outside, and was inspired to work to preserve our region’s natural areas during camping trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness when she was in middle and high school.