Plant Diversity Review

Vocabulary terms and definitions related to plant diversity.

Indigenous

Occurs naturally in a particular habitat.

Endemic

Species that occurs only in a specific habitat and nowhere else in the world.

Exotic/alien species

Species that does not occur naturally in a habitat and was brought in from another area.

Indicator species

A species that enables ecologists to determine environmental health of an ecosystem.

Keystone species

A species that has an extremely high impact on an ecosystem relative to its population.

Bryophytes

Non-vascular plants including mosses, evolved from algae about 400 million years ago.

Gymnosperms

Vascular plants that produce seeds in cones and do not have flowers.

Angiosperms

Flowering plants; seeds develop in ovary and fruits develop from mature ovary.

Pollen

Carries the sperm cell, allowing fertilization without the dependency on water for movement.

Double Fertilization

A process in angiosperms where one sperm fertilizes the egg and another fertilizes two polar nuclei to form endosperm.