Sugarbeet

  Botanical Characteristics

      Sugar beets are a C-3 plant, grown for 6-7 months in Egypt. . The sugarbeet is biennial plant.

The Root crop:

          In the first year of life of sugarbeet forms a thick , cone-shaped , main root and numerous small, thin lateral ones. They penetrate the soil to a depth of over 2 meters , expanding in width for 40 to 50 cm.

The root crop (main root) consists of a head (epicotyl) which is a short –ended stem, a neck (hypocotyl) , a short part of the root crop without leaves and secondary roots, the root proper, the cone-shaped part with secondary roots in two longitudinal grooves situated on opposite sides of the root crop.(Fig.1)

The Leaves :

In 1^st Year

• The leaves are rosettes consisting of a leaf blade and petiole.
• There are buds near the bases of  leaves.

In 2^nd Year

      The shoots develop from these buds.

The Flowers:

• The flowers of the beet, as rule, appear in the second year of life.
• The stem are covered with inflorescences (racemes ) composed of long and loose spicate peduncles which carry tiny greenish flowers inside whorls ( 2-4 and even more ) .
• The flowers are bisexual .
• They have 5 stamens
• The stigma is trilobite.
• There is one pistil.
• The Fruit is nut.
• When mature, they fuse and form a solid compound fruit , a "ball" .
• The latter has 2 to 6 fruits and 1 to 4 seeds.
• Depending on the number of seeds, the beet can divided into ployspermous ( Polygerm or Multigerm ) and monospermous ( Monogerm ) 

Source :

G.V. Ustimenko-PBakumovsky (1983). Plant growing  in the tropics and subtropics Mir Publishers Moscow, p144