Coleoptile and Cotyledons

Hyacinthus' coleoptile, what that basically does is protect the emerging shoot of monocots.

This is an updated picture of Amadeus and as you can see in the picture are his little cotyledons. Those little tiny leaves. Isn't he cute?

Buds and Stuff

So the babies are growing now. Lots of interesting stuff popping out. Here's a pic of Amadeus from the doctor's office. As you can see the thing in the middle is the terminal bud. And what that is is basically a bud at the tip of a stem. And a bud is basically an underdeveloped shoot that will develop into a flower or a short shoot. You can also see clearly the nodes and internodes. A node holds buds which grows into leaves or flowers, depending on the plant. And internodes are the space between each node. Here you can also see leaves. Leaves maximize the surface area that is exposed to light, therefore photosynthetic function. You can't tell but those leaves are actually covered in cuticles. A waxy cover that helps conserve water.

Germination

The babies have germinated!!! YAYY!!! :D 

At the top you can see Amadeus germinating and at the bottom his brother. For those of you who don't know what germinating is let me explain. Germination is basically when a seed sprouts and begins taking that first step on the 1000 step stairway to adulthood. Factors that affect germination includes sufficient amounts of water, oxygen, the right temperature, and sometimes light and darkness play a factor in triggering germination.

Dicot Anatomy

As you can see here, from a theoretical because I would never cut my own baby in half, you see what Amadeus' cotyledon would look like as well as his plumules aka the developing embryo. Quite fascinating really, I feel sorry for the parents who donated this embryo for science's sake, but someone had to get the pictures. As for the endosperm, that's all the white you see surround this embryo, just sittin' there chillin' and nourishing that baby. 

Monocot Anatomy

Upon closer inspection of the monocot, narrow leaves, a network of very fine roots, and leaves that are often sappy with parallel veins, baby, we can see the endosperm, cotyledon and the developing embryo. The endosperm surrounds the embryo and nourishes it. The cotyledon will eventually grow to be the plants first leaves! And the embryo is the embryo, pretty self explanatory. It's basically the "baby".

Embryo Pictures! So cute :3

This is Amadeus as an embryo.

 And this is Hyacinthus.