Ch 31: Plant Diversity Flashcards
Thallus
A flattened, often photosynthetic structure lacking differentiated vegetative organs; produced by the body of the gametophyte generation in hornworts and some liverworts.
Epiphytes
A plant that grows on branches or trunks of trees, without contact with the soil.
Peat Bog
Wetland in which dead organic matter accumulates.
Pinnae
Small unit of the photosynthetic surface on fern leaves; also, the external structure of mammalian ears that enhance the reception of sound waves contacting the ear.
Leptosporangium
A distinctive sporangium, found in some ferns, whose outer wall is only a single cell thick and in which drying produces a catapult-like mechanism to release spores.
T/F: Bryophytes possess lignin in their xylem.
False
T/F: All gymnosperms are tall trees (or “tree-like” organisms) that contain both tracheids and resins.
False
Angiosperms have a much higher water-transport capacity than that found in tracheid-only plants because:
the specialization of cells into vessel elements and fibers allows transport and support to become separate functions.
Without the higher rates of transpiration exhibited by angiosperms, many tropical regions would:
have higher temperatures and lower rainfall.
T/F: Sphagnum moss plays an important role in the global carbon cycle because it stores large amounts of organic carbon.
True
What group of gymnosperms has only a single living representative species?
Ginkgo
While looking at a plant, you notice that the major veins in its leaves are parallel to the middle vein, its vascular bundles are distributed throughout the stem, and only one leaf attaches to any of the nodes. You are looking at a(n):
Monocot
The persistent and photosynthetic generation of bryophytes is in general constrained to be close to the ground:
in order to successfully disperse gametes.
What group of plants contains the tallest and oldest trees on Earth?
Conifers
Examples of convergent evolution of bryophytes and vascular plants include:
mosses that attract insects that transport their spores.
Fern leaves emerge as tightly coiled structures called:
Fiddleheads
At first glance, cycads and palm trees may look very similar, but how are they distinguished?
Cycads have cones; palm trees have flowers.
The early branching angiosperms have _____ diversity than later branching groups.
less
Secondary xylem is produced by __________, and contributes to the ___________ of some plants.
vascular cambium; woody stem
In vascular plants the _____ is larger than the _____.
diploid sporophyte; haploid gametophyte
Plants that grow on other plants for structural support, but do not consume nutrients or energy from them, are called:
epiphytes
How do bryophytes obtain water and CO2?
They absorb both CO2 and water directly from the environment without passing through stomata or roots.
Vascular plants can be divided into ____ groups according to the unit of dispersal that results in the establishment of independent individuals.
2
What generation (in the alternation of generations) is represented by the green, leafy, portion in mosses?
haploid gametophyte
