BIO 110: Chapter 9 Fungi & Plants

Fungi

A chemo-heterotrophic eukaryote that digests its food externally and absorbs the resulting small nutrient molecules. Most consist of a netlike mass of filaments called hyphae. Molds, mushrooms, and yeasts are examples.

Hyphae

One of many filaments making up the body of a fungus.

Mushrooms

A fungus in which an aboveground reproductive structure extends from a belowground mycelium.

Mycelium

The densely branched network of hyphae in a fungus.

Spores

(1) In plants and algae, a haploid cell that can develop into a multicellular haploid individual, the gametophyte, without fusing with another cell. (2) In fungi, a haploid cell that germinates to produce a mycelium.

Mycorrhizae

A mutually beneficial symbiotic association of a plant root and fungus.

Plant

A multicellular eukaryote that carries out photosynthesis and has a set of structural and reproductive terrestrial adaptations, including a multicellular, dependent embryo.

Roots

The underground organ of a plant. Anchor the plant in the soil, absorb and transport minerals and water, and store food.

Shoots

The aerial organ of a plant, consisting of stem and leaves. Leaves are the main photosynthetic structures of most plants.

Tissue Systems

An organized collection of plant tissues. The organs of plants (such as roots, stems, and leaves) are formed from the dermal, vascular, and ground tissue systems.

Bryophytes

A type of plant that lacks xylem and phloem; a nonvascular plant. Includes mosses and their close relatives.

Cuticle

(1) In animals, a tough, nonliving outer layer of the skin. (2) In plants, a waxy coating on the surface of stems and leaves that helps retain water.

Gametophyte

The multicellular haploid form in the life cycle of organisms undergoing alternation of generations; results from a union of spores and mitotically produces haploid gametes that unite and grow into the sporophyte generation.

Sporophyte

The multicellular diploid form in the life cycle of organisms undergoing alternation of generations; results from a union of gametes and meiotically produces haploid spores that grow into the gametophyte generation.

Phloem

The portion of a plant’s vascular system that conveys sugars, nutrients, and hormones throughout a plant. Is made up of live food-conducting cells.

Sugar Sink

A plant organ that is a net consumer or storer of sugar. Growing roots, shoot tips, stems, and fruits are examples supplied by phloem.

Sugar Source

A plant organ in which sugar is being produced by either photosynthesis or the breakdown of starch. Mature leaves are the primary examples of plants.

Transpiration

The evaporative loss of water from a plant.

Vascular Tissue

Plant tissue consisting of cells joined into tubes that transport water and nutrients throughout the plant body. Xylem and phloem make up this.

Xylem

The portion of a plant’s vascular system that provides support and conveys water and inorganic nutrients from the roots to the rest of the plant. Consists mainly of vessel elements and/or tracheids, water-conducting cells.

Lignin

A chemical that hardens the cell walls of plants. Makes up most of what we call wood.

Seedless Vascular Plants

The informal collective name for lycophytes (club mosses and their relatives) and ferns and their relatives.

Stomata

A pore surrounded by guard cells in the epidermis of a leaf. When they are open, CO2 enters the leaf, and water and O2 exit. A plant conserves water when they are closed.

Gymnosperms

A naked-seed plant. Its seed is said to be naked because it is not enclosed in an ovary.

Seed

A plant embryo packaged with a food supply within a protective covering.

Angiosperms

A flowering plant, which forms seeds inside a protective chamber called an ovary.

Cotyledon

The first leaf that appears on an embryo of a flowering plant; a seed leaf. Monocot embryos have one; dicot embryos have two.

Dicot

A flowering plant whose embryos have two seed leaves, or cotyledons.

Flower

In an angiosperm, a short stem with four sets of modified leaves, bearing structures that function in sexual reproduction.

Monocot

A flowering plant whose embryos have a single seed leaf, or cotyledon.

Fruit

A ripened, thickened ovary of a flower, which protects dormant seeds and aids in their dispersal.

Meristems

Plant tissue consisting of undifferentiated cells that divide and generate new cells and tissues.

Primary Growth

Growth in the length of a plant root or shoot produced by an apical meristem.

Secondary Growth

An increase in a plant’s girth, involving cell division in the vascular cambium and cork cambium.