Plant Anatomy and Morphology

Plants are highly organized and contain many specialized organs and tissues. Understanding the anatomy and morphology of plants provides a foundation for understanding how plants look, grow, and ultimately produce food. It is also important in developing plant management and pest control strategies for optimizing crop yield. Morphology deals with the form and structure of plants. The plant morphological features we typically see are the flowers, roots, stems, and leaves. Plant anatomy is the study of the internal tissues and cells of plants. The epidermis, vascular system, meristems, and ground tissues are important types of tissues that are constructed of individual, specialized cells. 

The coffee growing areas receive high rainfall (over 900 mm) and have very fertile arable soils. The main objective of crop physiology, is to find how the morphological characteristics and the physiological activities of crops interact with the environment to determine yield. Coffee being an extremely valuable cash crop, various workers have tried to add knowledge to accomplish this objective.

A well known feature of arabica coffee is the existence of two types of branches:

Orthogeotropric, commonly called suckers which grow vertically;

Plagiogeotropic branches, commonly called primaries which are placed at 45-90^o in relation to the main axis.

Primary branches give rise to secondary branches which split to tertiary branches and which also branch to form quaternary branches. Suckers which originate after part of the main stem is excised are axillary. Sucker regeneration can be induced by partial ringing of the bark tissue just above the point of stumping. Sucker development was found to be under the influence of apical dominance. 

Nutman (1933) carried out a very extensive study on roots of coffee trees in Kenya and Tanzania, and proposed a common pattern for coffee roots. In the same paper he listed some of the factors which affect growth, spatial distribution and nature of roots. These factors were soil conditions, including soil reaction, a high water-table and overburden pressure. The typical root system consists of a taproot, axial roots which run vertically downward below the trunk of the tree; lateral roots, some of which are more or less parallel to the soil surface (surface plate roots), and others which are of deeper origin than roots of the surface plate and ramify evenly in the soil sometimes becoming verticals, feeder bearers evenly distributed and feeders borne uniformly on feeder bearers at all depths.

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Nutman FJ. 1933. The root system of Coffee Arabica L. Emp. J. Exp. Agriculture 1,271-285.

Root-lesion nematodes are among the most common and damaging to coffee. Aside from root-knot nematodes and a few other generations. The genus Pratylenchus is comprised of 97 valid spieces of worldwide distribution and economic importance, which parasitize a wide variety of plant spieces. Members of this genus are called root-lesion nematodes because they produce lesions on feeder roots and occasionally on other underground plant parts as a result of their feeding. They are sometimes referred to as meadow nematodes due to their frequent occurrence in that environment.