Q:

Do plants have an excretory system?

A:

While plants do release some matter, they do not have a complex excretory system that eliminates waste in the same way that animals like dogs and humans have. Oxygen gets secreted from most plants, and things like excess water and saps can also be secreted from plants, but these are not processed through an elaborate digestive and excretory system.

 Full Answer:

Though plants do typically release oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis, this is not considered excretion in the strictest sense of the word. Photosynthesis is the closest plants come to digestion, but because the process involves a conversion of light energy to sugars and other fuel rather than the consumption of and processing of a food item, the oxygen that gets produced as a result isn't considered to be excrement.

Similarly, though some trees and plants release saps, resins, latexes and syrups, these are considered to be extruded rather than excreted. This is because these secretions are extruded from the interior of the plant due to interior pressures. This can be seen as roughly analogous to blood rather than excrement because it is not an elimination of processed waste.

Though plants and trees do not have excretory systems like animals do, they do process and eliminate waste and toxins. These waste products are processed through roots, bark, tubers, fruits and stems.

 Excretion in plants:

Compared to animals, plants do not have a well-developed excretory system to throw out nitrogenous waste materials. This is because of the differences in their physiology. Therefore, plants use different strategies for excretion.

The gaseous waste materials produced during respiration (carbon dioxide) and photosynthesis (oxygen) diffuse out through stomata in the leaves and through lenticels in other parts of the plant. Excess water evaporates mostly from stomata and also from the outer surface of the stem, fruits, etc., throughout the day. This process of getting rid of excess water is called transpiration.

The waste products, like oxygen, carbon dioxide and water, are the raw materials for other cellular reactions. The excess of carbon dioxide and water are used up in this way. The only major gaseous excretory product of plants is oxygen!

Many plants store organic waste products in their permanent tissues that have dead cells, e.g., in heartwood. Plants also store waste within their leaves or barks. These wastes are periodically removed as the leaves and barks fall off.

Some of the waste products are stored in special cells or cellular vacuoles. Various waste products such as tannins, essential oils, gums, resins, etc., are produced during catabolic processes. Tea leaves, amla and betel nuts (supari) contain tannin. Tannins are found also in the barks of trees.

The leaves of many plants, like Eucalyptus, lemon, sacred basil (tulsi), etc., contain essential oils. The rind of oranges and lemons and the petals of flowers like rose and jasmine also contain oils. Some plant wastes are stored as a thick, white fluid. You may have seen white fluid ooze out when you pluck a papaya or a fig or the leaves of yellow oleander (pila kaner). This white fluid is called latex.

Gums are a group of sticky, water- soluble wastes found in the common gum tree (babul). Resins are another group of wastes found commonly in the stems of conifers (e.g., pine, fir).

Alkaloids are a group of toxic waste products. But some of these are useful to us. Quinine and morphine are medicines derived from alkaloids stored in Cinchona bark and opium poppy flowers respectively. Caffeine found in coffee seeds and nicotine in tobacco leaves is also alkaloids.

Organic acids, which might prove harmful to plants, often combine with excess cations and precipitate out as insoluble crystals that can be safely stored in plant cells. Calcium oxalate crystals accumulate in some tubers like yam (zamikand).