Plant Biology Review

This set of flashcards covers key concepts and facts from the Plant Biology lecture notes.

Which of the following statements about plant divisions is false?

All vascular plants produce seeds.

Which of the following statements about the moss life cycle is false?

The calyptra buds to form a mature gametophyte.

Which of the following statements about the fern life cycle is false?

Sporangia form on the underside of the gametophyte.

The land plants are probably descendants of which of these groups?

Green algae.

What does alternation of generations mean for plants?

Plants produce both haploid and diploid multicellular organisms.

What trait of land plants allows them to grow in height?

Xylem.

What characteristic of Charales helps them survive dry spells?

Sporopollenin.

Which characteristic is present in land plants but not in Charales?

Plasmodesmata.

What result would support including Charophytes in the Plantae kingdom?

The Chara genome is more similar to the tomato plant genome than the red algae genome.

Which feature does not support the inclusion of Charophytes in the Plantae kingdom?

Charophytes do not exhibit growth throughout the entire plant body.

Which of the following structures is not found in bryophytes?

Root.

Stomata appear in which group of plants?

Mosses.

The chromosome complement in a moss protonema is:

1n.

Why do mosses grow well in the Arctic tundra?

They do not require moisture.

Which life-cycle stage of bryophytes is most common during a severe drought?

Gametophyte.

Microphylls or lycophylls are characteristic of which types of plants?

Club mosses.

What plant likely has a segmented stem and slender leaves arranged in a whorl?

Horsetail.

The structures containing sporangia found on fern leaves are called:

Sori.

The dominant organism in a fern is the:

Sporophyte.

What seedless plant is a renewable source of energy?

Sphagnum moss.

How do mosses contribute to soil formation?

Mosses harbor cyanobacteria that fix nitrogen.

The production of megaphylls by different species of plants is an example of:

Analogous evolution.

Why did land plants lose certain accessory pigments?

There was no need to collect additional light wavelengths on land.

Paleobotanists distinguish between extinct and extant species as:

Extinct; extant.

The three groups of bryophytes include:

Liverworts, hornworts, and mosses.

Bryophyte plant bodies are called:

Thalli.

Which of the following are not bryophytes?

Ferns.

In the life cycle of moss, sperm swim down the __ to fertilize the egg.

Archegonium.

Which statement best describes ferns?

Seedless, vascular.

What are the first land plants with vascular tissues?

Ferns.

What is a horizontal, underground stem called?

Rhizome.

Young fern leaves first appear in a structure called a __.

Fiddlehead.

In ferns, what are the sori?

Brown and orange spots on the underside of pinnae.

In the life cycle of fern, each spore grows into a multicellular gametophyte called __.

Prothallus.

What is not a main feature of the fern?

First land plants that produce seeds.

How do plants become preserved as fossils?

They produce rot-resistant compounds.

What does a paleobotanist study?

Fossil plants.

What is the correct order of evolution of major plant groups?

Bryophytes, lycophytes, seed plants.

What is wrong with the sentence: 'Land plants evolved from modern charophycean green algae.'?

Modern charophyceans didn’t exist at the time land plants arose.

If two plant species have nearly identical DNA sequences, what does it indicate?

They are closely related.

What is phylogeny?

Evolutionary history of an organism.

Why did seedless plants become less dominant at the end of the Carboniferous?

Less water was available for reproduction.

Why did the Earth become cooler as photosynthetic levels rose?

Photosynthesis consumed CO2.

As plants became more abundant on land, what happened to atmospheric CO2 levels?

They dropped.

How are peat moss bogs important to global ecology?

They store large quantities of methane and minimize temperature fluctuations.

Are aquatic plants less advanced than most?

No, because they are descended from terrestrial ancestors.

What characterizes plants compared to green algae?

They are adapted to life on land.

Which set of characteristics distinguishes plants from fungi and animals?

They are multicellular and autotrophic.

What is the difference in habitat for the invasive fern Lygodium?

Its natural enemies in Asia are not present in America.

Why are protracheophytes important in the evolution of land plants?

They form a link between bryophytes and seedless vascular plants.

From which plant organ are the others derived?

Stems.

Why did plants in Carboniferous swamps not decay completely?

They were in low-oxygen environments.

What would the ploidy of the dominant phase of the life cycle have been in the ancestor organisms if sporophytes arose from a delay in meiosis?

Diploid.

What is the proposed order of the evolution of megaphylls?

Overtopping, planation, webbing.

Which phylum do liverworts belong to?

Hepatophyta.

Why are bryophytes considered nonvascular plants?

They lack conducting tissue.

How do we know that the gametophyte is the dominant phase of the life cycle?

Sporophytes are not green.

Why are sporophytes only found on female gametophytes in bryophytes?

The sperm always travels to the egg, which is stationary.

What are gemmae and how do they function in reproduction?

Small pieces of gametophyte tissue which are dispersed by wind or water.

Why are mosses more abundant than liverworts or hornworts?

They can withstand extreme desiccation.

Which statement about Sphagnum is incorrect?

Statement A: it takes up large amounts of carbon dioxide.

To which group does a newly discovered plant with moderate height and a simple vascular system belong?

Can't tell from the information.

Why has Psilotum been classified with ferns?

Modern DNA analysis shows they are closely related.

What is the advantage of having sporangia clustered at the top of the plant like in Equisetum?

This aids spore dispersal by wind.

How are sori and cones similar?

They are both aggregations of sporangia.