Hinglish

Diversity in Plants and Animals Around Us

Class 6 Science · Chapter 2: Diversity in the Living World · NCERT Curiosity section 2.1

Learn

Kabir and Tenzin go on a nature walk around their school with a notebook. In just one hour they list 14 kinds of plants and 11 kinds of animals: ants, mynas, a squirrel, butterflies, a garden lizard … This huge variety of living things is called diversity.

Plants can be grouped by their stems. Herbs have soft, green stems and are short (mint, wheat, tulsi). Shrubs are bushy with several hard stems from near the ground (rose, hibiscus). Trees are tall with one thick, woody trunk (mango, neem).

Look closely at leaves. The lines on a leaf are its veins. In grass, wheat and banana the veins run side by side: parallel venation. In mango, peepal and hibiscus they form a net: net-like (reticulate) venation.

Now dig up a weed carefully and look at its roots. A taproot has one thick main root with thin side roots (mustard, radish). Fibrous roots are a bunch of thin roots of about the same size (grass, wheat, onion).

Here's a pattern scientists noticed: plants with parallel veins usually have fibrous roots, and plants with net-like veins usually have a taproot. Their seeds differ too: a soaked chana splits into two halves (two seed leaves, a dicot); a maize grain does not (one seed leaf, a monocot).

Explore: sort the plants.

  1. Is each plant a herb, a shrub or a tree?
  2. Now sort the leaves by their veins.

Remember

  • Herbs: soft green stems. Shrubs: bushy, woody stems. Trees: one thick trunk.
  • Parallel veins ↔ fibrous roots ↔ monocot seeds. Net veins ↔ taproot ↔ dicot seeds.

Quick check

A plant has leaves with parallel veins. What kind of roots does it most likely have?

  1. Fibrous roots
  2. A taproot
  3. No roots
  4. Roots on its leaves
Answer

Fibrous roots. Parallel veins usually go with fibrous roots, like in grass and wheat.

Think about it

Gauri finds a plant whose leaves have parallel veins. Without digging it up, what can she guess about its roots and seeds?

One answer

Its roots are probably fibrous, and its seeds probably have one seed leaf (a monocot), like grass, wheat and maize. She could check by looking at a seed.

Practice

Practise with fresh questions at three levels (easy, medium, hard), some answered hands-on, with hints and worked answers. Get 4 of your last 5 right to finish the topic.