Plant Kingdom Lecture Notes

Vocabulary flashcards covering classification systems, algae, bryophytes, pteridophytes, gymnosperms, and angiosperms based on the lecture transcript.

Thallus

A plant body that is not differentiated into true root, stem, and leaf.

Artificial Classification

A classification system based only on gross superficial morphological characters such as habit, color, and leaf shape, or vegetative characters and androecium structure (e.g., classification by Linnaeus).

Natural Classification

A classification system based on natural affinities among organisms, considering external features as well as ultrastructure, anatomy, embryology, and phytochemistry (e.g., classification by George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker).

Phylogenetic Classification

A classification system based on evolutionary relationships between organisms, assuming organisms belonging to the same taxa share a common ancestor (e.g., classification by R. H. Whittaker).

Numerical Taxonomy

A phenetics classification system carried out using computers where numbers and codes are assigned to all characters, giving equal importance to hundreds of observable characters simultaneously.

Cytotaxonomy

Taxonomy based on cytological information such as chromosome number, structure, and behavior.

Chemotaxonomy

Taxonomy that uses the chemical constituents of plants to resolve classification confusions.

Embryophytes

Plant groups that possess an embryo, comprising Bryophytes, Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, and Angiosperms.

Spermatophytes

Seed-bearing plant groups, comprising Gymnosperms and Angiosperms.

Archegonates

Plant groups that bear archegonia (female sex organs), comprising Bryophytes, Pteridophytes, and Gymnosperms.

Tracheophytes

Plant groups that bear conducting vascular tissues, namely xylem and phloem, comprising Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, and Angiosperms.

Phycobiont

The algal component of a lichen that prepares food for the fungal partner.

Mycobiont

The fungal component of a lichen that provides shelter and absorbs mineral nutrients and water for the alga.

Isogamous

Sexual reproduction involving the fusion of two gametes that are similar in size (can be motile as in Ulothrix or non-motile as in Spirogyra).

Anisogamous

Sexual reproduction involving the fusion of two gametes that differ in size, as seen in Eudorina.

Oogamous

Sexual reproduction involving the fusion of a small, motile male gamete with a large, non-motile female gamete, as seen in Volvox and Fucus.

Hydrocolloids

Water-holding substances produced by marine brown and red algae, such as algin and carrageen.

Pyrenoids

Storage bodies located in the chloroplasts of green algae that contain protein in addition to starch.

Chlorophyceae

Green algae containing chlorophyll a and b, carotenoids, storing food as starch, with cell walls composed of inner cellulose and outer pectose.

Phaeophyceae

Brown algae containing chlorophyll a, c, carotenoids, and fucoxanthin, storing food as mannitol or laminarin, with cellulosic walls covered by algin.

Rhodophyceae

Red algae containing chlorophyll a, d, and r-phycoerythrin, storing food as floridean starch, and completely lacking motile flagellated stages.

Fucoxanthin

The brown xanthophyll pigment responsible for the brown color in Phaeophyceae.

r-Phycoerythrin

The red accessory pigment in Rhodophyceae that traps light of the shortest wavelength, allowing red algae to grow at great ocean depths.

Zooidogamy

Fertilization accomplished by means of motile gametes swimming through water.

Gemmae

Green, multicellular, asexual buds that develop in gemma cups on the thallus of liverworts like Marchantia and germinate to form new individuals.

Protonema

The juvenile, creeping, green, branched, filamentous first stage of the moss gametophyte that develops directly from a spore.

Operculum

The upper cap-like structure of a moss capsule involved in spore release.

Peristomial teeth

A total of $32$ teeth arranged in $2$ whorls of $16$ each (outer $16$ hygroscopic) located in the capsule of mosses to assist in spore dispersal.

Sphagnum

A moss known as peat moss, bog moss, or cotton moss that provides peat used as fuel and water-retaining packing material.

Circinate vernation

The characteristic coiling pattern shown by young fronds or leaves in pteridophytes like ferns and Cycas.

Prothallus

The heart-shaped, small, multicellular, free-living, photosynthetic thalloid haploid gametophyte of pteridophytes.

Heterosporous

The condition of producing two distinct types of spores (microspores and megaspores), found in pteridophytes like Selaginella and Salvinia, as well as all gymnosperms and angiosperms.

Selaginella lepidophylla

A xerophytic pteridophyte commonly called the "Resurrection plant" because it rolls into a ball during dry periods and regains greenness upon receiving water.

Coralloid roots

Negatively geotropic roots found in Cycas that harbor nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria like Nostoc and Anabaena in a symbiotic association.

Mycorrhizal roots

Symbiotic associations between plant roots and fungi, as found in the gymnosperm Pinus.

Sulphur shower

The mass wind dispersal of yellow pollen grains from the male cones of Pinus.

Chilgozas

The edible seeds produced by the gymnosperm Pinus.

Ginkgo

A gymnosperm with long shoot and dwarf shoot, commonly known as the "Maiden hair tree" or "Living fossil".

Taxol

An anti-cancerous drug extracted from the gymnosperm Taxus.

Ephedrin

An anti-asthmatic drug extracted from the photosynthetic stems of the xerophytic gymnosperm Ephedra.

Ophioglossum

A pteridophyte commonly known as "Adder's tongue fern" that holds the record for the largest chromosome number of $2n = 1260$.