Anatomy of Flowering Plants NEET PYQReal NEET & AIPMT 2007–2021 questions, year-tagged, with solutions
By the RankUp team, founded by Dr. Deepak Sahu (MBBS Gold Medalist, NEET PG AIR 1731) · Updated
Every Anatomy of Flowering Plants question from the NEET & AIPMT papers on this site (2007–2021), newest first. Each is tagged with its paper. Tap an option to check your answer and read the explanation.
- Chapter
- NCERT Class 11
- PYQs here
- 41
- Papers
- NEET & AIPMT 2007–2021
- In the app
- 294+ questions
Anatomy of Flowering Plants previous year questions
41 questions. Tap an option to check your answer.
Q1NEET 2021
Match List - I with List - II. List - I | List - II (a) Cells with active cell division capacity | (i) Vascular tissues (b) Tissue having all cells similar in structure and function | (ii) Meristematic tissue (c) Tissue having different types of cells | (iii) Sclereids (d) Dead cells with highly thickened walls and narrow lumen | (iv) Simple tissue Select the correct answer from the options given below.
Not quite — the answer is A.
Actively dividing cells make up meristematic tissue, a tissue of one cell type is a simple tissue, a tissue made of different cell types (xylem, phloem) is complex vascular tissue, and dead cells with very thick walls and a narrow lumen are sclereids. Hence (a)-(ii), (b)-(iv), (c)-(i), (d)-(iii).
Q2NEET 2020 · Q36
The transverse section of a plant shows following anatomical features: (a) Large number of scattered vascular bundles surrounded by bundle sheath. (b) Large conspicuous parenchymatous ground tissue. (c) Vascular bundles conjoint and closed. (d) Phloem parenchyma absent. Identify the category of plant and its part:
Not quite — the answer is A.
Many scattered, conjoint and closed vascular bundles with bundle sheaths in a large parenchymatous ground tissue, and no phloem parenchyma, are the features of a monocot stem. A dicot stem has bundles in a ring, and roots have radial, not conjoint, vascular bundles.
Q3NEET 2019 · Q93
Grass leaves curl inwards during very dry weather. Select the most appropriate reason from the following :
Not quite — the answer is B.
Bulliform (motor) cells in the upper epidermis of grass leaves lose water and become flaccid during water stress, so the leaf rolls inwards to cut water loss. Closing stomata reduces transpiration but does not by itself roll the leaf.
Q4NEET 2019 · Q170
Phloem in gymnosperms lacks :
Not quite — the answer is D.
Gymnosperm phloem has sieve cells and albuminous cells but lacks both sieve tubes and companion cells. Saying it lacks only one of these leaves out the other.
Q5NEET 2018 · Q124
Stomata in grass leaf are
Not quite — the answer is C.
In grasses (monocots) the guard cells are dumb-bell shaped. Kidney (bean) shaped guard cells are typical of dicot leaves, which is the main trap.
Q6NEET 2018 · Q125
Secondary xylem and phloem in dicot stem are produced by
Not quite — the answer is B.
The vascular cambium is a lateral meristem that cuts off secondary xylem towards the inside and secondary phloem towards the outside. Phellogen (cork cambium) forms cork and secondary cortex, while apical and axillary meristems produce primary tissues.
Q7NEET 2018 · Q127
Casparian strips occur in
Not quite — the answer is D.
The tangential and radial walls of root endodermal cells carry a band of suberin called the Casparian strip, which blocks the apoplastic movement of water. The pericycle lies just inside the endodermis but has no such strips.
Q8NEET 2018 · Q128
Plants having little or no secondary growth are
Not quite — the answer is C.
Grasses are monocots with closed vascular bundles that lack cambium, so they show little or no secondary growth. Conifers and deciduous dicot trees have an active vascular cambium and form wood; cycads also show secondary growth.
Q9NEET 2017 · Q64
Identify the wrong statement in context of heartwood:
Not quite — the answer is C.
Heartwood is the dark central wood whose dead, highly lignified elements are filled with tannins, resins, oils and gums, which make it durable but non-conducting. Water and minerals are conducted by the outer sapwood, so that statement is wrong.
Q10NEET 2017 · Q94
Which of the following is made up of dead cells?
Not quite — the answer is C.
Phellem (cork) cells are dead at maturity, with suberin deposited in their walls. Xylem parenchyma, collenchyma and the sieve tubes and companion cells of phloem are living (phloem fibres are the only dead part of phloem).
Q11NEET 2017 · Q127
The vascular cambium normally gives rise to:
Not quite — the answer is C.
The vascular cambium cuts off secondary xylem towards the inside and secondary phloem towards the outside. Phelloderm and the rest of the periderm come from the cork cambium, and primary phloem comes from procambium.
Q12NEET 2017 (Gujarati paper) · Q97
The chief function of vessels in the plant body is to:
Not quite — the answer is C.
Vessels are long tubes of dead lignified cells in the xylem whose main role is conducting water and minerals from roots to the aerial parts. Transporting food made in leaves is the function of phloem sieve tubes, not vessels.
Q13NEET 2017 (Gujarati paper) · Q113
Which of the following statements is true for phloem in plants?
Not quite — the answer is B.
Companion cells are connected to sieve tube elements by pit fields and help maintain the pressure gradient in the sieve tubes. Each sieve tube element is a single cell that loses its nucleus, phloem parenchyma is absent in most monocots, and phloem fibres are sclerenchymatous.
Q14NEET 2016 Phase 2 · Q102
The balloon-shaped structures called tyloses
Not quite — the answer is C.
Tyloses are balloon-like outgrowths of neighbouring xylem parenchyma cells that push into the vessel lumen through pits. They block the vessels and are typical of heartwood, not sapwood, so they stop rather than aid the conduction of sap.
Q15NEET 2016 Phase 1 · Q174
Specialised epidermal cells surrounding the guard cells are called:
Not quite — the answer is B.
Specialised epidermal cells next to the guard cells are subsidiary cells, and together they form the stomatal apparatus. Bulliform cells are large cells on grass leaves that help leaf rolling, and lenticels are pores in bark.
Q16AIPMT 2015
Vascular bundles in monocotyledons are considered closed because:
Not quite — the answer is C.
A vascular bundle is closed when there is no cambium between xylem and phloem, so it cannot form secondary tissues. Monocot bundles lack this cambium; having a bundle sheath does not make a bundle closed.
Q17AIPMT 2015
A major characteristic of the monocot root is the presence of:
Not quite — the answer is D.
Monocot roots have no cambium, so they do not undergo secondary growth. Scattered vascular bundles are a feature of the monocot stem, not the root, where xylem and phloem are arranged radially.
Q18AIPMT 2014
You are given a fairly old piece of dicot stem and a dicot root. Which of the following anatomical structures will you use to distinguish between the two?
Not quite — the answer is B.
Even after secondary growth the primary xylem persists: protoxylem is endarch (towards the pith) in a dicot stem but exarch (towards the periphery) in a dicot root, so it distinguishes the two. Secondary xylem, secondary phloem and cortex are formed or arranged similarly in both old organs and do not reliably separate them.
Q19AIPMT 2014
Tracheids differ from other tracheary elements in:
Not quite — the answer is A.
Tracheids are elongated cells with tapering ends and no perforations in their end walls (imperforate), whereas vessel members have perforation plates. Both tracheids and vessels are lignified and dead without a nucleus at maturity, and Casparian strips belong to the endodermis, not tracheary elements.
Q20AIPMT 2012 Mains
As compared to a dicot root, a monocot root has :
Not quite — the answer is B.
Monocot roots are polyarch, with many xylem bundles, whereas dicot roots usually have two to six. Monocot roots show no secondary growth, so they have no secondary xylem, annual rings or periderm to compare.
Q21AIPMT 2012 Prelims
Water containing cavities in vascular bundles are found in
Not quite — the answer is C.
In monocot stems such as maize, the protoxylem breaks down to leave water-containing cavities (lysigenous cavities) in each vascular bundle. Sunflower is a dicot, and Pinus and Cycas are gymnosperms that do not show this feature.
Q22AIPMT 2012 Prelims
Closed vascular bundles lack
Not quite — the answer is D.
A closed vascular bundle has no cambium between xylem and phloem, so it cannot form secondary tissue (as in monocots). Pith, ground tissue and conjunctive tissue are not parts of the bundle itself.
Q23AIPMT 2012 Prelims
The common bottle cork is a product of
Not quite — the answer is C.
Commercial bottle cork is phellem (cork) produced by the phellogen (cork cambium) of the cork oak, Quercus suber. Vascular cambium produces secondary xylem and phloem, and dermatogen forms the epidermis.
Q24AIPMT 2012 Prelims
Companion cells are closely associated with
Not quite — the answer is B.
Companion cells are connected to sieve tube elements by pit fields and help maintain their pressure gradient. Guard cells surround stomata, and vessel elements belong to xylem.
Q25AIPMT 2011 Mains
Some vascular bundles are described as open because these
Not quite — the answer is D.
A vascular bundle is open when cambium is present between xylem and phloem, so it can produce secondary xylem and phloem. Conjunctive tissue lies between separate xylem and phloem patches in roots and does not make a bundle open.
Q26AIPMT 2011 Prelims
Ground tissue includes
Not quite — the answer is C.
The ground tissue system comprises all tissues except the epidermis and the vascular bundles, so it includes cortex, pericycle, pith and medullary rays in a dicot stem, and mesophyll in leaves. It is not limited to tissues on one side of the endodermis.
Q27AIPMT 2011 Prelims
In land plants the guard cells differ from other epidermal cells in having
Not quite — the answer is A.
Guard cells contain chloroplasts, whereas ordinary epidermal cells generally lack them. Mitochondria, ER and the cytoskeleton are present in all living epidermal cells, so they do not distinguish guard cells.
Q28AIPMT 2011 Prelims
The cork cambium, cork and secondary cortex are collectively called
Not quite — the answer is D.
During secondary growth the phellogen (cork cambium), phellem (cork) and phelloderm (secondary cortex) together make up the periderm. Phellem, phelloderm and phellogen are each just one component of it.
Q29AIPMT 2010 Mains · Q34
Transport of food material in higher plants takes place through
Not quite — the answer is D.
Food is carried in phloem, through the sieve tube elements (sieve cells in gymnosperms) joined end to end by sieve plates. Companion cells only support the sieve tubes, tracheids conduct water, and transfusion tissue is a gymnosperm leaf tissue.
Q30AIPMT 2010 Prelims · Q132
Which one of the following is not a lateral meristem?
Not quite — the answer is A.
Intercalary meristem lies between mature tissues at the bases of internodes (as in grasses) and is a primary meristem, not a lateral one. Fascicular and interfascicular cambium and cork cambium (phellogen) are lateral meristems that cause growth in thickness.
Q31AIPMT 2010 Prelims · Q135
The chief water conducting elements of xylem in gymnosperms are
Not quite — the answer is A.
Gymnosperms lack vessels in their xylem, so tracheids are their main water-conducting elements. Vessels are characteristic of angiosperms, and fibres provide support, not conduction.
Q32AIPMT 2010 Prelims · Q138
Heartwood differs from sapwood in
Not quite — the answer is D.
Heartwood is the dark central secondary xylem. Its elements are dead and filled with tannins, resins, gums and similar deposits, so it no longer conducts water. These deposits make it more resistant to microbes and insects, not more susceptible.
Q33AIPMT 2009 Prelims · Q94
Anatomically fairly old dicotyledonous root is distinguished from the dicotyledonous stem by
Not quite — the answer is C.
Even after secondary growth, a dicot root keeps exarch protoxylem (towards the periphery), whereas the stem has endarch protoxylem (towards the centre). Both old root and stem have secondary xylem and phloem, so their presence or absence cannot distinguish them.
Q34AIPMT 2009 Prelims · Q109
The annular and spirally thickened conducting elements generally develop in the protoxylem when the root or stem is:
Not quite — the answer is A.
Protoxylem forms in regions that are still elongating, and its annular and spiral wall thickenings allow the vessels to stretch with the growing organ without breaking. Metaxylem, with reticulate and pitted thickenings, forms later when the organ has stopped elongating and is maturing.
Q35AIPMT 2009 Prelims · Q119
Guard cells help in:
Not quite — the answer is A.
Guard cells open and close the stomatal pore and so regulate transpiration and gaseous exchange. Guttation happens through hydathodes, not stomata.
Q36AIPMT 2009 Prelims · Q131
Palisade parenchyma is absent in leaves of:
Not quite — the answer is D.
Sorghum is a monocot with an isobilateral leaf whose mesophyll is not differentiated into palisade and spongy layers. Mustard, soybean and gram are dicots with dorsiventral leaves that have palisade parenchyma.
Q37AIPMT 2009 Prelims · Q132
In barley stem vascular bundles are:
Not quite — the answer is A.
Barley is a monocot, and monocot stems have many conjoint, closed (no cambium) vascular bundles scattered in the ground tissue. Open bundles arranged in a ring are typical of dicot stems.
Q38AIPMT 2008 Prelims · Q135
Vascular tissues in flowering plants develop from
Not quite — the answer is C.
In Hanstein's histogen theory the plerome, the central histogen of the apex, gives rise to the stele including the vascular tissues. Dermatogen forms the epidermis, periblem forms the cortex, and phellogen is the cork cambium of secondary growth.
Q39AIPMT 2008 Prelims · Q160
The length of different internodes in a culm of sugarcane is variable because of
Not quite — the answer is A.
In grasses like sugarcane, intercalary meristems at the base of internodes cause each internode to elongate on its own, so internodes end up with different lengths. The shoot apical meristem adds new nodes and internodes but does not set their individual lengths.
Q40AIPMT 2007 Prelims · Q131
For a critical study of secondary growth in plants, which one of the following pairs is suitable?
Not quite — the answer is A.
Teak (a dicot tree) and pine (a gymnosperm) both have an active vascular cambium and cork cambium, so they show clear secondary growth. Ferns, wheat and sugarcane lack cambial activity, so every other pair contains a plant without secondary growth.
Q41AIPMT 2007 Prelims · Q139
Passage cells are thin walled cells found in
Not quite — the answer is D.
In older roots most endodermal cells become thickened with suberin, but some opposite the protoxylem stay thin-walled; these passage cells let water pass from the cortex into the pericycle and xylem. They are not part of phloem, seed coat or style.
How often Anatomy of Flowering Plants came up
Questions from this chapter in each paper on this site.
- NEET 2021: 1
- NEET 2020: 1
- NEET 2019: 2
- NEET 2018: 4
- NEET 2017: 3
- NEET 2017 (Gujarati paper): 2
- NEET 2016 Phase 2: 1
- NEET 2016 Phase 1: 1
- AIPMT 2015: 2
- AIPMT 2014: 2
- AIPMT 2012 Mains: 1
- AIPMT 2012 Prelims: 4
- AIPMT 2011 Mains: 1
- AIPMT 2011 Prelims: 3
- AIPMT 2010 Mains: 1
- AIPMT 2010 Prelims: 3
- AIPMT 2009 Prelims: 5
- AIPMT 2008 Prelims: 2
- AIPMT 2007 Prelims: 2
Keep going
PYQs show what NEET asks. For the full Anatomy of Flowering Plants bank (294+ questions with solutions), use the RankUp app.
