Chimera

Chimera (Plural: Chimaera) [ Botany ]
Abbreviation: +

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

A plant that contains a mixture of tissues from two or more genetically different cells or tissues in the same part of a plant.

These different tissues can be spontaneously mutated cells of the host organism or cells from a different organism or species produced as a result of organ transplant, grafting (Graft chimera), artificial fusion of unlike tissues or genetic engineering. A chimaera show variegation when some of the plant’s tissues lose the ability to produce chlorophyll so that this tissue lacking of chlorophyll (usually white or yellow) contrasting with the normal green tissue. Because the chimera is due to the presence of two kinds of plant tissue, propagating the plant must be by a vegetative method of propagation that preserves both types of tissue in relation to each other.

◄ Left: A slide of chimerical stem of Hylocalycium (Hylocereus undatus + Gymnocalicium cv. Hibotan) showing the two different tissue.

[The name chimera derives from the Old French, from Latin “chimaera”, from Greek “khimaira”, which means chimera, she-goat. From Indo-European Root “ghei-“ Chimera is a Greek mythological character a fire-breathing she-monster made up of the front parts of a lion, the middle parts of a goat, and the tail of a snake she is the daughter of Typhon.]

Advertising

Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994