Florida Miller & Levine Experience Biology - Chapter 22: Plants

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcard set covering the biology, classification, evolutionary adaptations, reproduction, anatomy, and life cycles of plants from Florida Miller & Levine Experience Biology Chapter 22 (Lessons 22.1, 22.2, and 22.3).

Alternation of Generations

A reproductive life cycle characteristic of plants in which the plant shifts between a diploid ($2N$) phase and a haploid ($N$) phase.

Sporophyte

The multicellular diploid ($2N$), spore-producing plant phase in the plant life cycle that produces haploid spores through meiosis.

Gametophyte

The multicellular haploid ($N$), gamete-producing plant phase in the plant life cycle that produces reproductive gametes (sperm and egg cells).

Cooksonia

One of the earliest fossilized vascular plants, dating back $425\text{ million years}$, that lacked leaves and roots, grew only a few centimeters tall, and possessed branched stalks bearing reproductive structures at their tips.

Green Algae

Photosynthetic aquatic organisms belonging to the plant kingdom that have cell walls and photosynthetic pigments identical to land plants, absorbing moisture and nutrients directly from their surroundings.

Spirogyra

A freshwater colonial green alga that forms long, threadlike filaments composed of stacked cells arranged like soda cans placed end to end.

Volvox

A colonial green alga consisting of as few as $500$ to as many as $50{,}000$ cells arranged to form hollow spheres.

Bryophyte

A group of small, seedless, nonvascular land plants—including mosses, hornworts, and liverworts—that grow from embryos, have specialized reproductive organs, and feature a dominant gametophyte stage.

Rhizoid

A thin filament in mosses and other bryophytes that anchors the plant to the soil and absorbs water and nutrients.

Vascular Tissue

Specialized transport tissues (xylem and phloem) that enable vascular plants to move fluids and nutrients through their bodies against the pull of gravity.

Archegonium

The female reproductive organ in bryophytes and ferns in which egg cells are produced.

Antheridium

The male reproductive organ in bryophytes and ferns in which flagellated sperm cells are produced.

Sporangium

A spore capsule located on a sporophyte where haploid spores are formed by meiosis.

Tracheophyte

A vascular plant possessing specialized conducting cells; tracheophytes include seedless vascular plants as well as all seed-bearing plants.

Tracheid

A hollow, tubelike water-conducting cell in xylem with thick cell walls strengthened by lignin and thin regions called pits.

Xylem

A vascular transport tissue that carries water and dissolved minerals upward from the roots to every part of a plant.

Phloem

A vascular transport tissue that carries nutrients and carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis throughout the plant body.

Frond

The large leaf of a fern.

Rhizome

A creeping or underground stem characteristic of ferns from which roots and fronds emerge.

Sori

Clusters of sporangia that form on the underside of a fern frond.

Seed

A plant embryo and its food supply encased in a protective covering (seed coat).

Gymnosperm

A seed plant that bears its seeds directly on the scales of cones rather than enclosed in a protective ovary.

Angiosperm

A flowering plant that produces flowers and bears its seeds within a protective layer of tissue (ovary) that develops into a fruit.

Pollen Grain

A tiny structure that contains the entire male gametophyte stage of a seed plant.

Pollination

The transfer of pollen from the male reproductive structure to the female reproductive structure in seed plants.

Ovule

The reproductive structure found in seed cones or flower ovaries in which haploid female gametophytes develop and inside which fertilization produces a seed.

Flower

The sexual reproductive organ of an angiosperm, composed of four types of specialized leaves: sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels.

Sepal

An outermost modified floral leaf that encloses the bud before it opens and protects the developing flower.

Petal

A brightly colored modified floral leaf located inside the sepals that serves to attract animal pollinators.

Stamen

The male reproductive organ of a flower, consisting of a stalk called a filament and a pollen-producing anther at its tip.

Anther

The structure located at the tip of a stamen where male gametophytes (pollen grains) are produced through meiosis.

Filament

The slender stalk of a stamen that supports the anther.

Carpel

The innermost reproductive organ of a flower that produces female gametophytes and later seeds, consisting of an ovary, a style, and a stigma (also referred to as a pistil).

Ovary

The swollen base of a flower's carpel that surrounds and protects one or more ovules and ripens into a fruit after fertilization.

Style

The narrow stalk portion of a carpel connecting the ovary to the stigma.

Stigma

The sticky or feathery top of a carpel's style specialized to capture pollen grains.

Embryo Sac

The female gametophyte of an angiosperm, formed within an ovule and consisting of seven cells and eight nuclei, including the egg cell and polar nuclei.

Double Fertilization

A fertilization process unique to angiosperms in which one sperm nucleus fuses with the egg cell to form a diploid ($2N$) zygote, while the other sperm nucleus fuses with two polar nuclei to produce a triploid ($3N$) endosperm.

Endosperm

A triploid ($3N$), nutrient-rich food-storage tissue inside an angiosperm seed that nourishes the developing embryo and seedling.

Cotyledon

An embryonic seed leaf that stores nutrients or transfers them to the plant during germination.

Monocot

An angiosperm whose embryo develops a single cotyledon, typically possessing parallel leaf veins, floral parts in multiples of $3$, scattered vascular bundles, and fibrous roots.

Dicot

An angiosperm whose embryo develops two cotyledons, typically possessing branched leaf veins, floral parts in multiples of $4$ or $5$, vascular bundles arranged in a ring, and a taproot.

Woody Plant

A plant whose stems are made primarily of cells with thick cell walls providing structural support, such as trees, shrubs, and woody vines.

Herbaceous Plant

A nonwoody plant that does not produce true wood and has smooth, flexible stems.

Annual

A flowering plant that completes its entire life cycle—from germination to seed formation and death—within a single growing season.

Biennial

A flowering plant that lives for two growing seasons, developing leaves and roots in the first season and producing flowers and seeds in the second season.

Perennial

A flowering plant that survives and regrows year after year.

Vegetative Reproduction

An asexual mode of reproduction in plants where new individuals form by mitosis from stems, roots, or leaves without gametes, flowers, or fertilization.

Grafting

A horticultural technique of vegetative reproduction in which a cut stem or bud from one parent plant is attached onto another closely related rooted plant.

Fruit

A mature angiosperm ovary, usually containing seeds, that encloses, protects, and aids in the dispersal of seeds.

Dormancy

A state in which a plant embryo inside a seed remains alive but does not grow until favorable environmental conditions are encountered.

Germination

The resumption of embryo growth that leads to the sprouting of a seed into a seedling.

Archaefructus

The oldest known angiosperm fossil, dating to approximately $135\text{ million years ago}$, meaning 'ancient fruit,' which is a true angiosperm that is neither a monocot nor a dicot.

Amborella

A primitive flowering plant native to the Pacific island of New Caledonia that represents an early-diverging lineage near the base of angiosperm evolution.