NCERT Solutions Curiosity Chapter 2 –16Section 2.2.1 How to group plants? — Activity 2.4: Let us group

Book page 15 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

Look closely at the height of different plants. Is the stem brown or green? Can you bend the stem easily, or is it stiff? Also, observe from where the branches of the plants arise. Fill in your observations in Table 2.3.

Answer

Here is Table 2.3 completed with plants you can find in almost any Indian school garden.

S. no.	Name of the plant	Height	Colour of stem	Tender / Hard	Thick / Thin	Branches close to the ground	Branches higher up on the stem	Name of plant group
1.	Mango	Tall	Brown	Hard	Thick	—	Yes	Tree
2.	Rose	Medium	Brown	Hard	Thin	Yes	—	Shrub
3.	Tomato	Short	Green	Tender	Thin	Yes	—	Herb
4.	Neem	Tall	Brown	Hard	Thick	—	Yes	Tree
5.	Gudhal (hibiscus)	Medium	Brown	Hard	Thin	Yes	—	Shrub
6.	Coriander (dhania)	Short	Green	Tender	Thin	Yes	—	Herb

Safety and care: bend the stem only gently, just enough to feel whether it springs back. Take care that the stems do not break — the plant has to keep growing after you leave.

Reading the table: notice that the columns move together. Wherever "Tall + Brown + Hard + Thick + branches higher up" appears, the answer in the last column is Tree. Wherever "Short + Green + Tender" appears, it is Herb. That is what makes these features a good basis for grouping.

Q2.

What differences do you observe among herbs, shrubs, and trees? How can you group plants as herbs, shrubs, and trees based on the data entered in Table 2.3?

Answer

The three groups differ in height, in the nature of the stem, and in where the branches begin.

Feature	Herb	Shrub	Tree
Height	Short — usually below your knee or waist	Medium — about your own height	Tall — much taller than you
Stem colour	Green	Brown	Brown
Stem nature	Soft and tender, bends easily	Hard and woody but thin	Hard, woody and thick
Branches	Close to the ground	Many stems branching close to the ground	Start higher up, away from the ground
Example	Tomato, coriander, spinach	Rose, gudhal, mehandi	Mango, neem, banyan

How to use the table to group any plant — ask three questions in order:

Is the stem green and soft? → it is a herb.
If the stem is brown and hard, is it thin, with many stems branching near the ground? → it is a shrub.
If it is thick and the branches begin higher up? → it is a tree.

Why the stem decides the height: a soft green stem cannot carry much weight, so a herb stays small. A woody stem is stiff and strong, so it can hold a tall crown of branches and leaves high above the ground — where more sunlight is available. Two more kinds have weak stems and solve the problem differently: climbers (money plant, grapevine) take support from something else, and creepers (pumpkin, watermelon) simply spread along the ground.

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