Diversity of Flowering Plants

Flashcards covering key vocabulary related to the diversity and classification of flowering plants, including their adaptations, types, and life cycles, based on lecture notes from pages 51-76.

Flowering Plants (Angiosperms/Anthophyta)

The largest phylum in the plant kingdom, reproducing with seeds produced in flowers, which are surrounded by fruit.

Evolutionary advantage of floral scent/color

Attracts animals and enhances pollination.

Evolutionary advantage of sweet, edible fruits

Animals eat them in one location and disperse seeds in another location through secretion.

Plantae

Multicellular photosynthetic autotrophs, most adapted to land, with thick cell walls made of cellulose.

Bryophyta (Mosses)

Nonvascular plants where the gametophyte generation is a grasslike plant, most living in moist environments.

Hepatophyta (Liverworts)

Nonvascular plants named for their liver-shaped gametophyte generation, most living in moist environments.

Anthocerotophyta (Hornworts)

Nonvascular plants named for visible hornlike reproductive structures, living in moist, cool environments.

Lycophyta (Club mosses)

Seedless vascular plants, some resembling tiny pine trees, living in wooded environments.

Pterophyta (Ferns, whisk ferns, and horsetails)

Seedless vascular plants, most with fringed leaves.

Cycadophyta (Cycads)

Gymnosperms reproducing with seeds in large cones; slow-growing, palmlike plants found in tropical environments.

Ginkgophyta (Ginkgo biloba)

The only species in its phylum, a gymnosperm tree with seeds hanging from branches, often planted in urban environments.

Coniferophyta (Conifers)

Gymnosperms reproducing with seeds produced in cones; usually evergreen.

Pollination

The process where pollen is spread from one plant to another, often by animals feeding on pollen or nectar, or by wind.

Seed formation (flowering plants)

Forms when the sperm cell from pollen fuses with the egg cell in the ovary of the pistil.

Fruit

A flower's ripened ovary that surrounds and protects the seed(s).

Cotyledon

An embryonic 'seed leaf'.

Monocots (Monocotyledonae)

Flowering plants with embryos having one cotyledon, leaves with parallel veins, flower parts usually in multiples of three, and scattered vascular bundles in the stem.

Dicots (Dicotyledonae)

Flowering plants with embryos having two cotyledons, leaves with netlike veins, flower parts usually in multiples of four or five, and vascular bundles arranged in rings in the stem.

Woody stem

A stiff stem made of fibrous material (dead cells) with high concentrations of lignin and cellulose.

Herbaceous plant

A plant that does not produce wood.

Annuals

Plants that mature from seed, flower, and die within one year.

Biennials

Plants that take two years to complete their life cycle.

Perennials

Plants that live for more than two years.