Plant Diversity

Question 1

what are archaeplastida

Answer 1

• Eukarya
• includes land plants and red and green algae (different from other algae)
• contains: chlorophyll, storage of carbs as starch, cell walls with cellulose

Question 2

what are streptophytes

Answer 2

• green plants
• divided into charophytes (green algae) and embryophytes (land plants)

Question 3

Charophytes

Answer 3

• require moisture
• Chara algae’s are called musk grass (bad smell)
• Spirogyra: long filament cells

Question 4

how are embryophytes (land plants) divided

Answer 4

• based on presence of vascular tissue
• vascular tissue is made up of xylem (water and minerals) and phloem (sugar and protein)
• split into Bryophytes (non-vascular, seedless) and vascular plants

Question 5

Bryophytes

Answer 5

• thrive in damp habitats
• major flora in inhospitable environments
• circulate nutrients through specialized cells
• includes liverworts, hornworts, mosses

Question 6

how are vascular plants divided

Answer 6

• Lycophytes and phorophytes are seedless
• and seeded Spermatophytes

Question 7

Lycophytes and Phorophytes

Answer 7

• Lycophytes: club mosses, quillworts, spike mosses
• phorophytes: horsetails, ferns, whisk ferns
• Club mosses: not true moss, small evergreens
• Horsetails: marshes, evenly spaced joints/nodes
• ferns (whisk ferns don’t have roots and leaves) large fronds

Question 8

How are Spermatophytes (seeded vascular) divided

Answer 8

• Gymnosperms: conifers
• Angiosperms: flowering

Question 9

life cycle of a plant

Answer 9

• alternation of generations: has both haploid and diploid phases
• gametophyte (haploid) to sporophyte (diploid)

Question 10

gymnosperms

Answer 10

• seeds not enclosed in an ovary
• four main groupings

Question 11

4 groupings of gymnosperms

Answer 11

• Conifers: cones, scale or needle foliage, evergreen
• Cycads: palm-like foliage, large strobili, pollinated via beetles
• Ginkgophytes: Gingko biloba is the only remaining
• Gnetophytes: vessel elements, trees, shrubs and vines

Question 12

angiosperms

Answer 12

• colours and patterns advertise nectar, ensuring pollination and protects ovule
• once pollinated, the walls of the ovary thicken and become the fruit
• fruits reflect mode of dispersal
• lighter - fly, coconuts - float, undigested seeds can be spread, burrs-carried

Question 13

types of angiosperms

Answer 13

• basal: laurels, magnolias, peppers
• monocots: single cotyledon, veins parallel to leaves, petals in multiples of three
• Eudicots: two cotyledons, network veins, four, five or more petals