R2101 1.1 – 1.4 Plant Classification & Life Cycles Flashcards
Definition of a conifer
Mostly evergreen
Perennial woody plants with secondary growth
Cones and naked seeds
Needle-shaped or scalelike leaves
2 examples of a shrub
- Mahonia japonica*
- Buxus sempervirens*
2 examples of a tree
- Fagus sylvatica*
- Betula pendula*
Half hardy annual
Life cycle of a year
Survive temperatures down to –5
Can be sown under protection and planted out after all danger of frost is past
- Cosmos* ‘Gazebo’
- Dahlia* ‘Bishop’s Children’
- Zinnia* ‘Purple Prince’
Hardy annual
Lives for one year.
Can survive and withstand temperatures below –5, and frost.
E.g. Lathyrus odoratus
- Calendula officinalis* ‘Orange King’
- Nigella damascena* ‘Miss Jekyll’
Tender perennial
Lives more than 2 years
Can’t survive temperatures below 1 degree or frost.
- Canna indica*
- Musa ornata*
Genus
Above ‘species’, below ‘family’; the generic name that precedes species, written in ital
Characteristics in common, from which further groups can be formed (species)
2 species belonging to same genus cannot produce fertile offspring
Species
Basic unit of biological specification
The largest group of organisms that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring
Share set of DNA
Name forms second part of binomial nomenclature
e.g. Cultivar
- Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’
- Forsythia x intermedia ‘Lynwood Variety’
- Rosa rugosa ‘Scabrosa’
Gymnosperms
- More ancient group
- Mostly consist of trees and shrubs. Perennials. Simpler vascular tissue.
- Flowers unisexual (either male or female but not both).
- Naked seeds – seeds do not have a protective fruit
- Seeds produced in a cone, the female organ.
- Leaves usually needle-like with thick waxy cuticle.
Angiosperms
- Vascular plants that produce flowers, which produce seeds which are enclosed within fruits
- Flowers can be unisexual or bisexual
- Woody or herbaceous
- Monocots and dicots
- Flowers display mechanisms for pollination, and seeds and fruits have specific features for effective dispersal.
Monocots - e.g.
palms, bananas, sedges, rushes, grasses, irises, lilies, some bamboos, and orchids
Dicots - e.g.
- Magnolias, roses, honeysuckles, cacti, mallows, buttercups, teas, laurels, birches, beeches, potatoes and tomatoes, water lilies and stonecrops.
- Four of the most economically important are the Fabaceae (bean family), the Apiaceae (carrot family), the Asteraceae (daisy family) and the Brassicaceae (cabbage family).
Monocots
- Flower parts and seed chambers in fruit are normally in threes
- Major leaf veins parallel
- Stem vascular bundles scattered
- Roots are adventitious
- Secondary growth absent
Dicots
Two seed leaves
Often grow to a large size as they have cambium tissue in stems which allows secondary growth
Flower parts in multiples of four or five
Major leaf veins reticulated
Stem vascular bundles in a ring
Roots develop from radicle (taproot)