General Characteristics and Diversity of Plants

Flashcards covering key terms and definitions relating to the characteristics and diversity of plants, fungi, and algae.

Kingdom Plantae

Includes all plants on earth, divided into lower (cryptogams) and higher (phanerogams) plants.

Cryptogams

Lower plants that are flowerless, seedless, and fruitless, often with hidden reproduction.

Thallophytes

A subgroup of cryptogams consisting of simplest plants with undifferentiated bodies called thallus.

Bryophytes

Non-vascular plants commonly known as mosses and liverworts.

Pteridophytes

Vascular plants that reproduce via spores, commonly known as ferns.

Gymnosperms

Higher plants that produce seeds, but no flowers, such as conifers.

Angiosperms

Flowering plants that produce seeds enclosed in fruits.

Ascomycota

Also known as sac fungi, they produce sac-like fruiting structures called asci.

Basidiomycota

Known as club fungi; distinguished by the production of spores in club-shaped structures called basidia.

Deuteromycota

Fungi that reproduce only asexually by means of conidia, also known as fungi imperfecti.

Mycology

The study of fungi.

Symbiosis

A close relationship between two different species, such as fungi and algae forming lichens.

Vegetative reproduction

A form of asexual reproduction in which new plants are formed from fragments of the parent plant.

Mycelium

The network of fine thread-like structures (hyphae) formed by fungi.

Plasmodium

The body structure of slime molds, an intermediate between plant and animal.

Haploid

A cell containing one complete set of chromosomes; in fungi, typically the vegetative state.

Diploid

A cell containing two complete sets of chromosomes; typical of the zygote stage in fungi.

Isogamy

A type of sexual reproduction where gametes are similar in size and shape.

Oogamy

A type of sexual reproduction that involves distinct male and female gametes.

Cell wall of fungi

Made predominantly of chitin, differing from the cellulose found in plant cell walls.

Fungal spores

Reproductive units of fungi, can be motile (zoospores) or non-motile.

Chlamydomonas

A unicellular green algae with various forms of reproduction, including both asexual and sexual methods.

Euglenophyta

Division of algae that includes unicellular flagellates capable of photosynthesis and phagocytosis.