Plant Diversity I Flashcards

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1
Q

What was the process that lead up to the greening of the earth?

A
  • For the first 3 billion years, land surface was largely lifeless
  • Cyanobacteria existed on land ≈1.2 billion years ago
  • Only ≈500 million years ago (mya), small plants, fungi, and animals emerged on land
  • Now ≈290,000 living species plants
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2
Q

What are the advantages of living on land rather than in the water?

A
- In a world of water, moving onto land had distinct advantages …
» Bright sunlight, unfiltered by water
» More CO2 in air than in water
» Soil rich in mineral nutrients
» Less competition, no “predators”
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3
Q

What were some challenges for animals adapting to living on land? What was the result of these challenges?

A

» Scarcity of water
» Lack of structural support against gravity
- Plants diversity is a reflection of different adaptations to these challenges

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4
Q

are all plants related to algea?

A

Land plants are related to green algea

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5
Q

What is the “alternation of generations?

A
  • an adaption in plants
  • Plants alternate between two multicellular stages (“alternation of generations”)
    » Includes both multicellular haploid and multicellular diploid organisms
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6
Q

How does the “alternation of Generations” work?

A
  • Plants, likewise, have sperm and eggs in their life cycles, but these are produced by an intermediate stage between the adult and the offspring
  • The adult generation produces spores (sporophyte), while the spore generation produces sex cells (Gametophyte)
  • The spores then develop into the gametophyte generation.
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7
Q

How do plants protect gametes, zygotes and spores?

A
  • Adaption of land plants
    » Specialised organ for gamete production (gametangia)
    • Archegonium in female plants
    • Antheridium in male plants
    » Multicellular, dependent embryos (“embryophytes”)
    • Grow protected within the parent plant
    » Tough and protected spores
    • Walls more resistant to drying (thanks to sporopollenin)
    • Produced protected within specialized organs (sporangium)
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8
Q

What is apical meristems?

A
  • Plants need to grow above ground (CO2, light) AND below ground (water, mineral nutrients) → apical meristems
    » Specialised tissue at growing tips of plant where cells divide repeatedly
    » Cells produced by the apical meristem then differentiate into outer epidermis or various types of internal tissues
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9
Q

Give a brief summary of a plant

A

» Photosynthetic organisms that have adapted to life on the land
• Most live in terrestrial habitats, but a few have returned to aquatic habitats (eg, seagrass)
» Eukaryotes
» Cell walls
» Photosynthetic autotrophs
• Sunlight as source of energy for metabolism (chloroplast)
• Fix carbon from CO2 to create organic compounds
- Life on land owes its existence to plants
- Live in all but the harshest terrestrial habitats

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10
Q

How many forms of plants are there?

A

Two distinct forms:
» Vascular plants
» Non-vascular plants

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11
Q

How many phyla of plants are there?

A

10

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12
Q

What are the 3 phyla of Nonvascular plants (Bryophytes)?

A
  • Bryophytes represented today by three phyla of small herbaceous (nonwoody) plants:
  • Mosses (phylum Bryophyta)
  • Liverworts (phylum Hepatophyta)
  • Hornworts (phylum Anthocerophyta).
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13
Q

What are the two different types of Vascular plants?

A

Seedless and Seeded plants

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14
Q

What are the different phylums of Vascular seedless plants?

A
  • Lycophytes (Phylum Lycophyta)

- Monilophytes (Phylum Monilophyta)

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15
Q

What are the different types of Vascular seeded plants?

A

Gymnosperms and Angiosperms

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16
Q

What are the different phylums of vascular seeded Gymnosperms?

A
  • Ginkgo (phylum Ginkophyta)
  • Cycads (phylum Cycadophyta)
  • Gnetophytes (phylum Gnetophyta)
  • Conifers (phylum Coniferophyta)
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17
Q

What are the different phylums of vascular seedless angiosperms?

A
  • Flowering plants (phylum Anthophyta)
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18
Q

What is the predicted ancestor of all plants?

A

An ancestral green Alga

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19
Q

How long ago was the origin of land plants?

A
  • about 470 mya
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20
Q

how long ago was the origin of vascular plants?

A
  • about 425 mya
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21
Q

What type of plant originated 305 mya?

A
  • extant seed plant
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22
Q

provide a summary of non-vascular plants

A

Primitive land plants
» Simple structure
» Need abundance of water
» Lack specialised conductive tissues

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23
Q

give a summary of liverworts

A
  • Non-vascular plant
  • About 9000 species
  • Usually small (<2 cm)
  • Mostly found in humid environments
24
Q

Give a summary on Hornworts

A
  • non-vascular plant
  • About 100 species
  • Most small, grow in humid places; some larger, grow on trees
25
Q

Give a summary on mosses

A
  • Non-vascular plant
  • About 15,000 species
  • The “carpet” is mostly gametophytes (haploid multicellular organism)
  • Sporophytes are elongated, visible to the naked eye
26
Q

What is the difference between a vascular plant life cycle and a non-vascular plant life cycle?

A

Unlike vascular plants, non-vascular plant life cycles are dominated by the gametophyte (haploid)

27
Q

What is the life cycle of moss?

A

Firstly the spore germinates into a gametophyte (protonema + gametophore, anchored by rhizoid) → gametes by mitosis → fuse in archegonium → zygote → embryo → sporophyte → spores by meiosis

28
Q

What is the difference between a Gametophyte and a Sporophyte?

A
  • Gametophytes are larger and longer-living than sporophytes

» Sporophytes are typically present only part of the time

29
Q

What is the first step in the general life cycle of all three phylum of Bryophyte?

A
  • A spore germinates into a gametophyte composed of a protonema and gamete-producing gametophore
    » Rhizoids anchor gametophytes to substrate
    » The height of gametophytes is constrained by lack of vascular tissues
30
Q

What is the 2nd step in the general life cycle of all three phylum of Bryophyte?

A
  • Mature gametophytes produce flagellated sperm in antheridium and egg in archegonium
31
Q

What is the 3rd step in the general life cycle of all three phylum of Bryophyte?

A
  • Sperm swim through a film of water to reach and fertilise the egg
32
Q

What is the 4th step in the general life cycle of all three phylum of Bryophyte?

A
  • Bryophyte sporophytes grow out of archegonium, and are smallest and simplest sporophytes of all extant plant groups
33
Q

What is the 5th step in the general life cycle of all three phylum of Bryophyte?

A
  • Each sporophyte releases enormous number of spores

» A single moss capsule can generate over 5 million spores!

34
Q

What are the parts of a Sporophyte?

A

» Foot
» Seta (“stalk”)
» Sporangium (“capsule”)

35
Q

Draw a diagram of a Sporophyte

A

book

36
Q

What is the Ecological significance of moss?

A
  • Mosses colonise bare soil and rocks, and help retain nitrogen
  • Peat bogs cover 3% of land surface but contain 30% of soil carbon
    » Good storage, but higher temperature due to global warming is likely to dry peat moss globally, causing it to decompose → release its CO2
37
Q

What are the main traits of modern vascular plants?

A

» Life cycles with dominant sporophyte
» Transport in specialized vascular tissues called xylem and phloem
» Well-developed roots and leaves

38
Q

Draw the diagram of the xylem and pholem

A

book

39
Q

What is the life cycle of a Vascular plant?

A
  • Still undergo alternation of generations, but gametophyte much reduced and sporophyte greatly increased
  • Dominant sporophyte
40
Q

What are the two types of vascular tissues?

A

Xylem and Phloem

41
Q

What is Xylem?

A

» Xylem
• Includes dead tube shaped cells (“tracheids”) that carry water and minerals up from roots
• Cell wall strengthened by lignin, provides support → enables vascular plants to grow tall

42
Q

What is Phloem?

A

» Phloem

• Living cells that distribute sugar, amino acids and other organic products

43
Q

What are the benefits of Xylem and Phloem?

A
  • Evolutionary edge: structural support + ability to carry water and nutrients high above the ground → plants could grow higher
    » Outcompete shorter plants for sunlight
    » Disperse spores further
44
Q

What are the leaves?

A

» Primary photosynthetic organ of vascular plants

» Greatly increases the surface area of vascular plants → capture more sunlight energy for photosynthesis

45
Q

What are the roots of a plant used for?

A

» Anchor the plant, like rhizoids

» But also absorb water and nutrients from the soil

46
Q

What is Phylum Lycophyta

A
  • (“lycophytes”)
  • seedless vascular plants
    » Includes club mosses, spike mosses, and quillworts
    • Although they’re NOT mosses!
    » Most herbaceous today, but during Carboniferous period (359-299 mya), included 40 m high trees!
47
Q

What is Phylum Monilophyta?

A
  • (“monilophytes”)
  • Seedless vascular plants
    » Includes ferns, horsetails, and whisk ferns and their relatives
    » Most widespread seedless vascular plants (12,000 species)
48
Q

what is the anatomy of a Fern sporophyte?

A
  • Horizontal stem (“rhizome”)
  • Large leaves (“fronds”; leaflets called “pinnae”)
    » Spore producing
    sporangia on underside
  • Roots (can be part of the stem)
49
Q

draw diagram of a fern sporophyte

A

book

50
Q

What is unique about fern leaves?

A
  • Unique manner of unfurling leaves (“circinate vernation”)

- Sporangia on underside (“sori”), protected by scale (“indusium”)

51
Q

In relation to plants, what happened during the Devonian and Carboniferous periods?

A
  • Ancestors of modern lycophytes, horsetails, and ferns grew to great heights during the Devonian (419-359 mya) and Carboniferous (359 299 mya), forming the first forests
52
Q

What was the result of the forests that formed during the Devonian and Carboniferous periods?

A
  • Increased growth and photosynthesis removed CO2 from the atmosphere and may have contributed to global cooling at the end of the Carboniferous period
53
Q

How are the forests that formed during the Devonian and Carboniferous periods affecting us today?

A
  • The decaying plants of these Carboniferous forests eventually became coal … burning coal is now contributing to global warming
54
Q

What are three types of local fern?

A
- (Platycerium bifurcatum)
Elk horn
- (Cyanthea cooperi)
Straw treefern
- (Platycerium superbum)
Staghorn
55
Q

What are the four main groups of plants?

A

» Bryophytes
» Seedless vascular plants
» Gymnosperms
» Angiosperms