Pflanzenplatte

Pflanzenplatte is a German-language term formed from Pflanzen (plants) and Platte (plate). It is not a single, uniformly defined concept in modern biology, and its meaning tends to depend on historical context or the specific field of use. In contemporary scientific writing, the term is rarely preferred, and more common designations such as Zellplatte are used for certain processes.

In cell biology, the concept most closely associated with the word relates to the division of plant cells. During cytokinesis in higher plants, vesicles derived from the Golgi apparatus coalesce at the center of the cell to form a cell plate, which eventually develops into the separating cell walls of two daughter cells. While this process is widely described in German as “Zellplattenbildung” or simply “Zellplatte,” some older or less formal texts may refer to the structure or stage as a Pflanzenplatte or Pflanzenplatte. In current usage, Pflanzenplatte is treated as a nonstandard or historical term for the same phenomenon rather than a distinct technical concept.

In the context of botanical illustration and publishing, Pflanzenplatte can also denote a plate or illustration of a plant included in a book, atlas, or monograph. Here it is synonymous with what in English would be called a plate: a full-page drawing or engraving that serves as a visual representation of a plant species.

Overall, Pflanzenplatte is a versatile but old-fashioned term whose precise meaning is determined by its historical or contextual use, with Zellplatte and plant-illustration plates being the more explicit modern references.