Question 47
Suppose Euphorbia and maize are grown in the tropical area.
(a) Which one of them do you think will be able to survive under such conditions?
(b) Which one of them is more efficient in terms of photosynthetic activity?
(c) What difference do you think are there in their leaf anatomy?
(a) Euphorbia is a CAM plant. It fixes CO2 during night and uses it in day time. It will be able to survive in hot tropical climate.
(b) Maize being a C4 plant is more efficient in terms of photosynthetic activity as it is able to use CO2 at lower level as well as high O2 and temperature.
(c) Maize plants show kranz anatomy in their leaves. They have granal chloroplast in mesophyll cells and agranal in bundle sheath cells. Euphorbia does not have C4 cycle so kranz anatomy is not found in them.