Plant Diversity

Question 1

what is the closest relative of land plants?

Answer 1

green algae called “charophytes”

Question 2

what four characteristics do land pants share with ONLY charophytes

Answer 2

1) rings of cellulose-synthesizing complexes
2) peroxisome enzymes
3) flagellated sperm with similar structure
4) formation of phragmoplast

Question 3

what’s a phragmoplast?

Answer 3

microtubules formed along the midpoint during division

Question 4

why are charophytes considered the closest living relative between plant and algae?

Answer 4

similarities between nuclear and chloroplast genes

Question 5

what is sporopellenin?

Answer 5

layer of polymer that prevents zygotes form drying out in charophytes and is also found in plant spore walls

Question 6

what happened when charophytes moved onto land

Answer 6

• unfiltered sun
• more plentiful CO2
• nutrient-rich soil
• few herbivores and pathogens

Question 7

what challenged did land present?

Answer 7

lack of structural support, scarcity of water

Question 8

what five traits appear in nearly all land plants but are absent in the charophytes

Answer 8

1) alternation of generations and multicell embryos
2) walled spores produced in sporangia
3) multicellular gametangia
4) multicellular embryo
5) apical meristems

Question 9

what is alternation of generations?

Answer 9

plants alternate between two multicell stages, the reproductive cycle is alt of gen.’s

Question 10

what is a gametophyte?

Answer 10

haploid; produces two haploid GAMETES via MITOSIS

Question 11

what is a sporophyte?

Answer 11

fusion of gametes produces a diploid sporophyte which produces haploid SPORES via MEIOSIS

Question 12

what are placental transfer cells?

Answer 12

they transfer the nutrients from parent to embryo

Question 13

what are land plants called embryophytes?

Answer 13

the dependency of the embryo on the parent

Question 14

where do sporophytes produce spores?

Answer 14

sporangia

Question 15

what are sporocytes?

Answer 15

diploid cells that undergo meiosis to generate haploid spores

Question 16

what organs are used to produce gametes in plants?

Answer 16

gametangia

Question 17

male gametangia? female gametangia?

Answer 17

male: antheridia
female: archegonia

Question 18

what are apical meristems?

Answer 18

plants sustain continual growth there and the apical meristems differentiate into various tissues

Question 19

what’s a cuticle?

Answer 19

a waxy covering of the epidermis

Question 20

what’s mycorrhizae

Answer 20

symbiotic associations between fungi and land plants that may have helped plants without true roots to obtain nutrients

Question 21

fossil evidence says plants were on land how long ago?

Answer 21

475 million years ago

Question 22

non-vasc plants

Answer 22

bryophytes
- liverworts
- mosses
- hornworts

Question 23

seedless vasc plants

Answer 23

• lycophytes (club mosses)
• monilophytes (ferns)

Question 24

seed vasc plants

Answer 24

• gymnosperms
• angiosperms

Question 25

how can land plants be informally grouped?

Answer 25

presence of vascular tissue

Question 26

what are non-vasc plants commonly called?

Answer 26

bryophytes

Question 27

bryophytes are what type of group?

Answer 27

not a monophyletic

Question 28

seedless vascular plants can be divided into what two clades?

Answer 28

lycophyta, monilophyta

Question 29

lycophyta

Answer 29

club mosses and relative

Question 30

monilophyta

Answer 30

ferns and their relatives

Question 31

gymnosperms

Answer 31

"naked seed" plants including conifers

Question 32

angiosperms

Answer 32

the flowering plants

Question 33

bryophytes three phyla

Answer 33

liverworts, hornworts, mosses

Question 34

bryophyte vs. bryophyta

Answer 34

- byrophyte: non-vasc plants - bryophyta: phylum of mosses

Question 35

which ____phytes are longer-living and larger?

Answer 35

gametophytes are larger and longer-living than sporophytes

Question 36

rhizoids

Answer 36

anchor gametophytes to substrate

Question 37

height of gametophytes constrained by...

Answer 37

lack of vascular tissue

Question 38

what does a sporophyte consist of?

Answer 38

foot, seta (stalk), capsule (sporangium), peristome (capsule discharges spores via this)

Question 39

moss environments?

Answer 39

capable of inhabiting extreme environments but are common in moist forests and wetlands

Question 40

benefits of moss?

Answer 40

some help retain nitrogen in soil, used to insulate structures, used as footwear

Question 41

peat

Answer 41

used as source of fuel; extensive decayed amterial

Question 42

sphagnum

Answer 42

important global resovoir of organic carbon

Question 43

what were the prevalent vegetation during the first 100-million years of plant evolution?

Answer 43

bryophytes and bryophyte-like

Question 44

when did vasc plants begin to diversify?

Answer 44

devonian and carboniferous

Question 45

how can plants grow tall?

Answer 45

vasc tissue

Question 46

seedless vasc plants restricted to what environments

Answer 46

moist environments; flagellated sperm

Question 47

how are living vasc plants characterized?

Answer 47

- life cycles with dom. sporophytes - vasc tissue (xylem and phloem) - well-developed roots and leaves

Question 48

xylem

Answer 48

conducts water and minerals and includes tracheids

Question 49

trachieds

Answer 49

dead cells in xylem

Question 50

lignin

Answer 50

strengthen water-conducting cells

Question 51

phloem

Answer 51

living cells and distributes sugars, amino acids, and other organic products

Question 52

two types of leaves

Answer 52

- microphylls: single vein - megaphylls: highly branched vasc system

Question 53

evolution of microphylls

Answer 53

outgrowth of stems

Question 54

evolution of megaphylls

Answer 54

evolved webbing between flatted branches

Question 55

club mosses and spike mosses not "true mosses?"

Answer 55

have vasc tissue

Question 56

most diverse seedless vasc plants

Answer 56

ferns (120,000+), diverse in tropics also thrive in forests

Question 57

horsetails

Answer 57

diverse during carboniferous now restricted to genus equisetum

Question 58

whisk ferns

Answer 58

resemble ancestral vasc plants but are closely related to modern ferns

Question 59

decaying plants of carboniferous forests...

Answer 59

coal