🌿 Solanaceae Family (Potato Family)

🌎 Distribution

Found worldwide in tropics, subtropics, and temperate zones.

🌱 Vegetative Features

  • 🌿 Plants: Mostly herbs/shrubs, rarely small trees
  • 🪵 Stem:
    • Herbaceous (rarely woody)
    • Aerial, erect, cylindrical
    • Branched (solid/hollow, hairy/smooth)
    • Underground stem in potato 🥔
  • 🍃 Leaves:
    • Alternate arrangement
    • Simple (rarely compound)
    • No stipules
    • Netted veins

💐 Floral Features

  • 🌸 Inflorescence: Single flowers or clusters (cymose)
  • ⚪ Flowers: Bisexual + radially symmetric
  • 🟢 Calyx: 5 united sepals (persistent)
  • 🌺 Corolla: 5 united petals
  • 🧪 Androecium: 5 stamens attached to petals
  • 🍈 Gynoecium:
    • 2 fused carpels
    • Superior ovary with 2 chambers
    • Swollen placenta with many ovules
  • 🍒 Fruit: Berry (e.g., tomato) or capsule
  • 🌰 Seeds: Many, with food storage tissue
  • 📜 Floral Formula:
  • \(\Phi\) = Bisexual
  • \(\text{K}_{(5)}\) = 5 fused sepals
  • \(\text{C}_{(5)}\) = 5 fused petals
  • \(\text{A}_{5}\) = 5 stamens
  • \(\text{G}_{(2)}\) = 2 fused carpels

💡 Economic Importance

  • 🍅 Food: Tomato, brinjal, potato
  • 🌶️ Spice: Chilli
  • 💊 Medicine: Belladonna, ashwagandha
  • 🚬 Fumigatory: Tobacco
  • 🪴 Ornamental: Petunia

🌻 Plant Morphology Summary

🌳 Root System

  • Tap root (dicots) vs. fibrous roots (monocots)
  • Roots modify for:
    • 📦 Food storage
    • 📏 Support
    • 🌬️ Respiration

🌿 Shoot System

  • Differentiated into: stem, leaves, flowers, fruits
  • Stem features:
    • Nodes + internodes
    • Hairy surface
    • Grows toward light ☀️

🍃 Leaves

  • Lateral outgrowth from stem nodes
  • Green (for photosynthesis 🌱)
  • Vary in shape, size, margins, tip

🌸 Flowers

  • Modified shoot for reproduction
  • Arranged in inflorescences
  • Vary in symmetry, ovary position, petal arrangement
  • After fertilization:
    • Ovary → fruit
    • Ovules → seeds

🌰 Seeds

  • Monocot (1 seed leaf) or dicot (2 seed leaves)
  • Vary in shape, size, viability period

🚀 NEET Must-Knows

  1. Solanaceae floral formula + diagram (stamens, carpels, fusion types)
  2. Economic plants in Solanaceae (food/medicine examples)
  3. Root systems: Taproot (dicots) vs. fibrous (monocots)
  4. Flower to fruit transformation: Ovary → fruit, ovules → seeds
  5. Leaf venation: Reticulate (Solanaceae) vs. parallel