Application Question
Medium difficulty • Concept in a practical situation
Question 1
Applied ConceptA farmer notices that wheat plants growing in his field have a different root system compared to mustard plants. With reference to the root systems, explain the structural and functional differences and how they relate to the crops' water absorption strategies.
- Wheat (monocot) has a fibrous root system — numerous roots of similar thickness arising from the stem base — that spreads widely in the upper layers of soil, efficiently absorbing surface moisture from shallow depths.
- Mustard (dicot) has a tap root system — a prominent primary root with secondary and tertiary laterals — that penetrates deep into the soil, accessing water from deeper layers and providing firm anchorage against wind.
- In drought conditions, the tap root system of mustard allows access to sub-soil moisture while the fibrous roots of wheat are more dependent on surface rainfall, making mustard relatively more drought-tolerant.
- The fibrous root system of wheat, by binding large volumes of topsoil, also prevents soil erosion more effectively than the tap root, demonstrating that root architecture has both agronomic and ecological significance.