Diversity of Flowering Plants

Flashcards covering key concepts, classifications, evolutionary advantages, and characteristics of flowering plants based on lecture notes.

Flowering Plants

The largest phylum in the plant kingdom, with unique adaptations allowing them to dominate, classified by seed type, stem type, and lifespan.

Evolutionary advantage of fragrant/colorful flowers

Attracts animals and enhances pollination.

Evolutionary advantage of sweet, edible fruits

Animals eat the fruit and secrete seeds in a different location, aiding in seed dispersal.

Plantae

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

Bryophyta (Mosses)

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

Hepatophyta (Liverworts)

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

Anthocerotophyta (Hornworts)

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

Lycophyta (Club Mosses)

Seedless vascular plants, some resemble tiny pine trees, live in wooded environments.

Pterophyta (Ferns)

Seedless vascular plants, including ferns, whisk ferns, and horsetails; most have fringed leaves.

Cycadophyta (Cycads)

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

Ginkgophyta (Ginkgos)

A phylum with only one species (Ginkgo biloba), a gymnosperm that reproduces with seeds hanging from branches.

Coniferophyta (Conifers)

Gymnosperms that reproduce with seeds in cones, usually evergreen (e.g., pines, spruces, firs, sequoias).

Anthophyta (Flowering Plants/Angiosperms)

Reproduce with seeds produced in flowers, where seeds are surrounded by fruit (the ripened plant ovary).

Pollination

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

Seed

Formed 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 seeds.

Monocot

A group of flowering plants characterized by having a single cotyledon.

Dicot

A group of flowering plants characterized by having two cotyledons.

Cotyledon

An embryonic 'seed leaf'.

Monocot Characteristics

Single cotyledon, usually parallel leaf veins, flower parts typically in multiples of 3, and scattered vascular tissue bundles in the stem.

Dicot Characteristics

Two cotyledons, usually netlike leaf veins, flower parts typically in multiples of 4 or 5, and vascular tissue bundles arranged in rings in the stem.

Woody Stem

Stiff stems made of a fibrous material of dead cells with high concentrations of lignin and cellulose.

Herbaceous Plant

Plants that do 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 more than two years.