Ch. 27: The Plant Kingdom-Seedless Plants

Question 1

Give a brief history of land plants (5 items)

Answer 1

• 1st plants : Ordovician period
• 1st vascular plants : Silurian (~450MYA)
• 1st gymnosperms & forests : Devonian (~400MYA)
• 1st angiosperms : Cretaceous (~100MYA)
• 1st grasses : Oligocene [Cenozoic] (~50MYA)

Question 2

What is Stonewort?

Answer 2

Stonewort, or Chara, is a freshwater protist (green alga) that is closely related to land plants

Question 3

Give examples of nonvascular plants

Answer 3

• Anthocerophyta [Hornworts]
• Hepatophyta [Liverworts]
• Bryophyta [Mosses]

Question 4

What is different about vascular plants?

Answer 4

They have Xylem and Phloem

Question 5

Give examples of vascular seedless plants

Answer 5

Lycopodiophyta [club mosses]

Pteridophyta [ferns, whisk ferns, horsetails]

Question 6

Give examples of vascular seed plants

Answer 6

Gymnosperms [Naked seeds]

Anthophyta (Angiosperms) [Fruit: covered seeds]

Question 7

What does xylem transport?

Answer 7

Water and some dissolved minerals/nutrients

Question 8

What does phloem transport?

Answer 8

The products of photosynthesis: sugars, carbohydrates

Question 9

Gametophytes

Answer 9

The gametophyte stage refers to a life stage in plants in which they are haploid (1n) and give rise to gametes.

Question 10

Sporophytes

Answer 10

The sporophyte stage refers to a life stage in plants in which they are diploid and give rise to spores.

Question 11

Which stage is dominant in nonvascular plants?

Answer 11

Gametophyte

Question 12

Which stage is dominant in vascular seedless plants?

Answer 12

Sporophyte

Question 13

How many species of the types of Bryophytes are there?

Answer 13

“Bryophytes”=living, nonvascular plants

• Bryophyta [mosses; ~10,000 spp. e.g., sphagnum (peat) moss]
• Hepatophyta [liverworts; ~6,000 spp.]
• Anthocerophyta [hornworts; ~100 spp.]

Question 14

Give information on club mosses

Answer 14

Phylum Lycopodiophyta [Club Mosses]
-Today, small herbaceous plants in temperate woodlands (“ground pine”)
-Neither a moss, nor a pine
Vascular seedless plants (~1,200 spp.)
Tree forms (Lepidodendron) were important in the “age of coal” – fossils can be found on Cumberland Plateau

Question 15

Give information on ferns

Answer 15

Vascular seedless plants (Ferns=Pteridophyta)
~11,000 species
-most spp. in tropical rainforests; lots of temperate spp.; some are aquatic
Ferns (Pteridophyta) - sporophyte dominant

Question 16

What are Whisk Ferns?

Answer 16

Whisk Fern (Pteridophyta) = vascular seedless plant
12 species - tropical and subtropical

Question 17

What are “Horsetails”?

Answer 17

Pteridophyta (Vascular seedless plant)
~15 spp. – marshy habitats (
fossils locally on Cumberland Plateau

Question 18

What kinds of vascular seedless plants were important in the “age of coal”?

Answer 18

Lycopodiophyta:
-Tree forms of club moss (Lepidodendron)
Pteridophyta:
-“Horsetails”–Calamites
*both can be found in fossil form on Cumberland Plateau
*Age of Coal= in Paleozoic Era

Question 19

Compare Heterosporous vs. Homosporous.

Answer 19

Some ferns and mosses are heterosporous, and others are homosporous
Heterosporous: Has a megaspore and a microspore
Homosporous: One type of spore (meiosis)

Question 20

What is an extinct phylum of vascular plants?

Answer 20

Rhyniophyta (~420MYA)

• no living Rhyniophytes
• Was found as a fossil, once thought to be a vascular plant, but under microscope, no xylem in rhizome
• thus, not a vascular plant, renamed as such