Botany Vocabulary: Photosynthesis, Food Chains,Dichotomous key, and Taxonomy dichotomous key

Photosynthesis

The process by which plants use solar energy to make their own food, transforming carbon dioxide and water into sugars that store chemical energy.

Human Caloric Diet

80% of the human diet is made up of Plants.

Food Chain

A series of organisms that eat one another so that energy and nutrients flow from one to the next.

Food Web

A bunch of organisms formed in an ecosystem that are a part of multiple food chains and connected.

Producer

(Usually plants) Organism that make their own food.

Consumer

Eats producer consuming their energy/food to get energy.

Autotroph

"Self feeder" A plant that can make its own food through photosynthesis.

Heterotroph

An organism, such as an animal, that obtains food from other organisms.

Eukaryotic

"True nucleus": An organism whose cells have nuclei, Eukaryotes include plants, animals, fungi, and algae.

Alternation of Generation

The alternation of sporophyte and gametophyte life forms during sexual reproduction in all plants.

Cellulose

The principal building block of plant cell walls, consisting of chains of glucose molecules.

Genetic Engineering

The process of moving and modifying genes to produce plants with desired traits.

Phylogeny

The evolutionary history of related species.

Binomial Nomenclature

This system of naming consists of two words for each organism. The first word is the name of the genus, while the second word is the species.

Cladogram

A tree-like branching system diagram that shows evolutionary relationships.

Derived Characteristics

Traits that have evolved in a group of organisms and are distinct from those of their ancestral species.

Taxonomy

The naming and classifying of species, or a category in a formal system of classification.

Dichotomous key

Used to identify different organisms, based on the organism's observable traits.