Ch. 28: The Plant Kingdom- Seed Plants

Question 1

What are some attributes of gymnosperms?

Answer 1

Naked seeds / Exposed seeds
Woody trees and shrubs
Cones (wind pollinated)
~850 species

Question 2

What are some attributes of angiosperms?

Answer 2

Woody or herbaceous (can have trees or shrubs)
Use animals or wind (almost exclusively wind) to pollinate
Seed enclosed in fruit (ovary)
~300,000 species
double fertilization

Question 3

What are bristlecone pines?

Answer 3

Trees that can live up to ~5,000 years old

Found in the West (Utah, Nevada, etc.)

Question 4

What are the gymnosperm taxa? Which are sister taxa?

Answer 4

Cycads
Ginkoes
Conifers
Gnetophytes
(Cycads and Ginkoes are sister taxa)
(Conifers and Gnetophytes are sister taxa)

Question 5

Cycads

Answer 5

Dioecious - “Two houses” - 2 different sexes on 2 different plants
-Pollen cones on male cycads
-Seed cones on female cycads
Most primitive (least derived) gymnosperm
Seeds much like earliest seeds in fossil record
Triassic “Age of Cycads”

Question 6

Ginkoes

Answer 6

Ginko (Maidenhair Tree)
- a single living species from China
-Thought to be extinct, but Chinese monks were cultivating it
Fossil record: ~200MYA
Resistant to air pollution (good for urban areas)
Deciduous (sheds leaves)
Dioecious
Female seeds - foul odor (“rancid butter”)
edible seeds
leaf extract may aid in memory

Question 7

Conifers

Answer 7

Ex: cedars, pines, etc.
Wind-blown Pollen grains (small, male cones)
Sporophyte generation is dominant
Most conifers are Monoecious
-Monoecious: separate male and female reproductive structures on the same plant
Male cones - small
Female cones - large

Question 8

Gnetophytes

Answer 8

~70 species
May be closely related to angiosperms (proposed sister taxa)
Cones in flower-like clusters
Leaves very angiosperm-like
Double fertilization (like angiosperms)
ex: Ephedra - source of ephedrine (weight control; energy boost; overuse deadly)

Question 9

Angiosperms

Answer 9

Flowering plants
Phylum Anthophyta
Earth's dominant plants
~300,000 species (from herbs to trees)
Flowers: reproductive structures (ovary:fruit)
Double fertilization

Question 10

What are the types of flowering plants?

Answer 10

Monocot: 3 petals (+sepals & stamens)
Eudicot: 4 or 5 petals (+sepals & stamens)
- /aka/ “Dicot”

Question 11

What are the elements of floral structure?

Answer 11

Female part: pistil
-(different types…simple/compound)
-ovary:fruit
Male part: stamen

Question 12

Monocots

Answer 12

Palms, grasses, orchids, irises, onions, lilies, etc.
Mostly herbaceous
Flower parts in 3s
Vascular bundles scattered (not in a ring)
Fibrous roots
Embryo with one cotyledon
No secondary growth (wood and bark absent)

Question 13

Eudicots

Answer 13

Oaks, roses, mustards, cacti, blueberries, sunflowers, etc.
Herbaceous or woody
Flower parts in 4s or 5s
Vascular bundles in a peripheral ring
Taproot (as opposed to fibrous roots)
Embryo with two cotyledons
Wood and bark often present

Question 14

Describe the angiosperm lifecycle

Answer 14

Sporophyte generation is dominant
Double Fertilization:
1. One sperm unites with an egg
a. Zygote (2n) forms
2. Second sperm cell unites with two polar nuclei
b. Endosperm (nutritive material for developing embryo)

Question 15

What is some evidence of the evolution of flowering plants?

Answer 15

Some tropical flowering plants have stamens and carpels (surrounding the ovary) that resemble leaves
-stamens and carpels are basically modified leaf structures

Question 16

What are progymnosperms?

Answer 16

Progymnosperms are extinct and were descended from seedless vascular plants

• Archaefructus
• Archaeanthus

Question 17

Archaefructus

Answer 17

Cretaceous of China
Early angiosperm?
-ovules, leaf-like carpel

Question 18

Archaeanthus

Answer 18

~100MYA

pistils