Is it wrong to say that Plants never adapted themselves or Plants never evolved in nature | REALITY OF EVOLUTION.

REALITY OF EVOLUTION

 (Is it wrong to say that Plants never adapted themselves or Plants never evolved in nature)

It is famous that plants introduced adaptations between themselves.

Now, what kind of adaptations, do plants have?

The adaptations or characteristics found in any kind of life are very complex and diverse. It is difficult to discuss all of these characters or adaptations.

So, we will look at just one thing and that is Water.

Water is the base of life and it is the only common thing in all kinds of life found on earth.

The plants also depend on water and we can classify the plants based on their water requirement. Examples of these plants include:

1. Xerophytes

2. Hydrophytes

3. Mesophytes

The xerophytes are found in deserts and have a water shortage problem. The xerophyte plants have a complete and perfect mechanism to deal with this deficiency of water.

But we mostly called these adaptations in xerophytes.

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Hydrophytes are found in areas where an excess amount of water is present and they also have the perfect mechanism to deal with this problem. 

And again we call these adaptations in hydrophytes. 

Now, the question is, what is meant by the term adaptations?

· It simply means that changes are introduced within any organism according to its external environment.

· Or with evolution, life made changes and adapted itself according to its nature.

• But is this statement true?
• Does the environment have any effect on the next generations of organisms?

If we look at history, then this statement supports Lamarck’s hypothesis.

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According to this hypothesis, life adapted itself according to the external environment. He gave many examples to prove his hypothesis. One of their most famous examples of his was the long neck of the giraffe.

According to this hypothesis, in the past, the giraffe had a short neck and ate grasses from the ground. But when there was no grass on the land, they started to eat the leaves from trees.

After a specific time, the new generations of giraffes had long necks because they had to eat leaves from trees as a source of their food.

This hypothesis was rejected because hereditary characters were not affected by the external environment and it was proved by Galton. Now, we know that DNA and genes decide the characteristics of the next generation.

The genes and DNA revolution show that hereditary information was not affected by the external environment. The mutation is an exceptional case and is not considered an adaptation. Also, the mutation is an imperfection in the functioning of the organism and it never leads to such perfection in the functioning of life.

We can understand this by taking the example of the mango tree.

· A mango tree will never grow in the desert because the genes of the mango tree have no information about this.

· If we give an artificial medium to a mango tree to grow in the desert and observe several generations of this mango tree, then we will conclude this fact that hereditary information was not affected by external conditions.

Now, why do we use the term adaptations with evolution for life or plants?

To answer this, firstly we have to know about evolution.

Simply, we can say that evolution is nothing but a story which have great diversity and can relate life from a simple to complex manner in a very easy way.

Now, what is meant by the story, and how evolution relates to life?

We can understand this thing with the help of the plant kingdom.

In the plant kingdom, algae are considered the simplest organisms which have no specific roots, shoots, or anything. Just a thallus-like body.

· Now. If the stem or shoots-like structure appears on this thallus-like structure, we can also say this as fake stems or shoots for easy understanding. Then this thallus plus fake shoots can be called bryophytes.

· Now, if this thallus successfully has a true stem or roots, shoots, etc. but has some seed-like structure that we call fake seeds, then this structure can be said pteridophytes.

· The appearance of true seeds without any protective covering on a true plant-like body, then the structure can be called gymnosperms.

· Now, if the seeds were successful in forming seed covering around it, then this structure can be called angiosperm.

 

With the help of this short concept, we can relate the whole plant kingdom which has countless numbers of species and individuals in it.

This relationship is very easy to understand and explain with the help of evolution. So, we can say that evolution is a story-like hypothesis that relates life from a simple to a complex manner.

But what about 

• Adaptations, is it TRUE?

· Practically the term adaptations in plants is wrong and false because it is impossible to change DNA or hereditary information by the effect of the external environment. However, the mutation and immunity factors of any organism are the exceptional cases because mutations can be induced by any mutagenic substance like X-rays and immunity is the natural ability present in the organism against pathogens and diseases while evolution is a different term.

· But theoretically, it is a true statement because it helps to understand the mechanisms and principles of life and we can relate these principles with other forms of life.

It is the backbone of our modern research and study, so we can’t deny this fact.

We have a naming system and kingdom system which are fully dependent on the concept of evolution. So, it’s a modern need but never a fact of life.