A few of the seedlings have a stalk growing up the middle and the others do not, what does this mean? New to native plants.
by Appropriate-Mess-523
A few of the seedlings have a stalk growing up the middle and the others do not, what does this mean? New to native plants.
by Appropriate-Mess-523
5 Comments
The first two leaves are cotyledon and aren’t shaped like true leaves. The stem you see are the first true leaves. The others are just a little behind.
The two initial ‘leaves’ are the cotyledons. They come from the seed and they nourish the seedling until it puts out roots and then starts getting nutrients from the soil.
The seedlings that have the sprout in the middle are further along, and they’re putting out their first true leaves.
Beautiful, healthy looking seedlings. I hope they do well for you!
The first two leaves you see on new seedlings are called cotyledons, but I just call them baby leafs. Dicots are plants with two baby leafs, monocots only produce one. Grasses are monocots, most of everything else you’ll grow will be dicots.
The little stalks growing out of the middle of the plant are the start of what the rest of the plant is gonna look like. So those leaves will look a little different from the first two. This will be the case for anything you grow in the future. Welcome to seed starting! Congrats on all the lupine!
The other two comments are correct. You’re seeing true leaves come up on some of your seedlings. They will all look like that soon.
Interesting cotyledon fact. Most dicots have identically shaped leaves. Genetically cotyledon leaf shape is “conserved” since they are /temporary/ they aren’t as important as the final leaf shape, which does have more evolutionary pressure.