15:371 Plant Diversity - Final Exam

Tricolpate Pollen

• Has 3 options for the pollen to germinate

• More efficient design

Monosulcate Pollen

• Less efficient design

• Germinating growth must turn around if it germinates the wrong direction

Monocots

• 22% of the species of flowering plant

  • 70,000 species

  • 12,000 species of grasses (globally)

• One cotyledon → derived character

• No woody growths

Monocot Palms

• Woody nature not developed by secondary growth

Eudicots

• Quarter of a million species

• Parallel venation shows up rarely

Monocotyledons

• Monophyletic group → 22% of all angiosperms

• Synapomorphies:

  • Aractostele

  • Single cotyledon

  • Parallel venation

Atactostele

• Vascular bundles are dispersed/scattered for structural integrity for stem cross-section, not in a ring

Dicot Venations

• Pinnate

• Palmate

Eustele

• Vascular cambium

• Nicely designed for secondary growth of the next year

Monocot Orders

• Liliales

• Poales

• Asparagales

Monocot Families

• Alismataceae

• Araceae

• Commelinaceae (Spider plants)

• Arecaceae

Asparagale Families

• Orchidaceae

• Asparigaceae

• Amaryllidaceae

• Iridaceae

• Agavaceae

• Asphodelaceae

Asparagales Main Synapomorphy

• All seeds are jet-black, almost shiny

• Pigment in seed coat called phytomelan

Poales Families

• Poaceae

• Cyperaceae

• Juncaceae

• Typhaceae

• Bromeliaceae

Graminoids

• Another name for order Poales

• Grass or grass-like plants

Liliales Families

• Liliaceae

• Melanthiaceae

• Smilacaceae

Liliaceae ~ Lily Family

• Perennial herbs with bulbs

• Ovary has many ovules

• Fruit is a capsule → opens from syncarpous pistil

• T6 (tepals), A6 (stamens), G3 (fused carpels)

• Spots on the leaves frequently seen

Lilium philadelphicum

• Common name → Wood Lily

• Family → Liliaceae

• Provincial flower of Saskatchewan

• 6 stamens, 1 style

• Superior ovary, Syncarpous pistil

Trillium

• Provincial flower of Ontario

• Family → Melanthiaceae

• K3 (sepals), C3 (petals), A6 (stamens), G3 (carpels)

• No true leaves, 3 leaf-like bracts below solitary flower

  • Flower rises from the rhizome

• 6 seeded capsule, seeds have elaiosome for dispersal by ants

Bracts

• “Leaves” that come with a flower

Elaiosome

• Lipid and protein rich food body attached on seeds

• Associated with Trillium

  • Allows for dispersal by ants

Smilax lasioneura

• Common name → Carrion Flower

• Family → Smilacaceae

• Climber → Has tendrils for grasping, Tendrils are modified stipules

• Heart-shaped mature leaves, Ovately-shaped young leaves

• Umbel flowers, Fruit is a berry

• Dioecious

Agavaceae ~ Agave Family 

• Leaves → in rosettes, fibrous, basal or at the stem apices, xeromorphic

• Shrubs or trees

• Semelparous → blooms only once

• Century plants

Xeromorphic

• Plants or plant parts with structural features that help survive in dry conditions by reducing water loss

Agave

• Family → Agavaceae

• Semelparous → Ramet flowers only once

Genus - Yucca

• Family → Agavaceae

• White flowers are usually pollinated by moths

Yucca brevifolia

• Common name → Joshua tree

• Family → Agavaceae

• White flowers are usually pollinated by moths

Allioideae

• Within Amaryllidaceae

• Onion subfamily

Amaryllidaceae Characteristics

• Herbs with a bulb

• Onion-like odour caused by alliin

• Leaves → narrow and basal

• Inflorescence → umbel with bract

Genus - Allium

• Family → Amaryllidaceae  

• Has subtending bracts

Asphodelaceae ~ Aloe Family

• Succulent herbs

• Leaves → Succulent

• Iteroparous → Ramet flowers many times

Iridaceae ~ Iris Family 

• Perennial herbs

• Leaves → Ensiform (sword-looking)

• Flowers → petaloid style and inferior ovary

Genus - Iris

• Family → Iridaceae

• Stigmatic surface on petaloid style

• Inferior ovary has axile placentation

Sisyrinchium

• Common name → Blue-Eyed Grass

• Family → Iridaceae

Orchidaceae ~ Orchid Family 

• Perennial herbs → terrestrial prepiphytic

• Stigma, style, and stamen are combined to form one structure called gynostemium

  • Informal name → column

• Perianth → modified to be an insect landing stage

• Dust seeds

Orchidaceae Flowers

• One tepal modified as labellum

  • One of the upper whorls is modified

• Gynostemium is the fusion of stigma, style, and stamen

• Pollen fused into pollinia for mass transfer

• Inferior ovary

Genus - Cymbidium 

• Family → Orchidaceae

• No differentiation between calyx and corolla

• Pollinia → big sticky balls of pollen, Operculum is a cover over the pollinia

• Rostellum is part of stigma modified to secrete sticky fluid

• Inferior ovary has parietal placentation

Vanilla planifolia ~ Vanilla Orchid 

• South America and central America, but cultivated widely  

• Capsule harvested before maturity → Dried and fermented

• Organic compound for flavour → Vanillin

• Climber

• Labellum → horn-like structure

Spadix

• Modified spike with flower on it

  • Flowers don’t have perianth

• Can be fleshy

• Plant examples in Manitoba → Water Calla and Water Calum

Araceae Spadix

• Tip is often naked

  • Where heat and smell are generated

Acoraceae

• Spathe is graminoid-looking, separated from the spadix (fluted)

• Spadix has no perianth

• Spade looks a bit grass-like

Genus - Acorus

• Family → Acoraceae

• Leaves → Ensiform (sword-like)

• Distinctive inflorescence → spadix (spike with fleshy core) and spathe (bract associated with spadix)

• Marsh plant harvested for rhizome, Divided rhizome keeps growing

• 2 species in North America, introduced from Europe. Manitoban specie is natural to North America

Acorus Uses

• Used to extract calamus oil from rhizome

  • Stimulates blood circulation

  • Relief of arthritis

Alismataceae ~ Water-Plantain Family

• Herbs in shallow water with petaloid flower

• Flowers → unisexual, calyx and corolla, apocarpous gynoecium

  • Multiple pistils, each pistil has one carpel

• Fruit → aggregate of achenes

Genus - Sagittaria

• Family → Alismataceae

• Flower → Pistillate and staminate, whorled racemes

• Enlarged receptacle, Female has many apocarpous pistils

• Leaves → Sagittate

• Dioecious or monoecious

Genus - Alisma

• Family → Alismataceae

• Flowers → Panicle, paniculate inflorescence, unisexual

  • Differentiation of calyx and corolla, 3 white petals and 3 green sepals

• Leaves → Lanceolate

• Muddy, wet habitat

• Dioecious or monoecious

Araceae ~ Arum Family

• Venation → parallel or penni-parallel

• Inflorescence → Spadix of numerous small flowers, subtending spathe surrounds base of spadix, flowers are perfect

  • Flowers → short neck, stubby stigma, almost no style, chubby ovary

• Fruit → berry

• Dioecious or monoecious

• Attracts beetles or flies

Genus - Colocasia

• Common name → Taro

• Family → Araceae

• Corm is an upright stem, rich in starch

Genus - Monstera

• Common name → Swiss cheese plant

• Family → Araceae

• Multiple sinuses, multiple lobes on a plant

• Flower → white spathe

Genus - Amorphophallus

• Common name → Voodoo Lily, Corpse Flower, Titan Lily

• Family → Araceae

• Species displayed are from Sumatra, Grows well in botanical gardens

• Tuber → disk-like, produces one big compound leaf divided into leaflets, (at maturity) produces spathe and spadix then makes berries

Genus - Arisaema

• Common name → Jack-in-the-pulpit

• Family → Araceae

• Leaves → Compound, divided into 3 leaflets

• Distribution → Southeast corner of USA (Eastern deciduous forest)

• End of spadix is naked, flowers tucked away in bract → produces odour to attract beetles

• Orange berries

Genus - Lemna

• Common name → Duckweed

• Family → Araceae

• Tiny flowers

• Can cover ponds (prolific grower)

Genus - Symplocarpus

• Common name → Eastern Skunk-Cabbage

• Family → Araceae

• Fly pollinated → Smells like rotting flesh, looks like meat

• Distribution → Carolinian, wet-forested areas

• Vegetative stage looks like a cabbage, comes up fast in season

Genus - Lysichiton

• Common name → Western Skunk-Cabbage

• Family → Araceae

• Seen in early spring (March), BC is the heartland for these plants

• Stinks → Flies are the pollination vector

Genus - Zantedeschia

• Common name → Calla Lily

• Family → Araceae

• Flower → White spathe, spadix is yellow, perfect, thick-necked, stigma on top, no perianth, 3 fused carpels

  • Anther → Pollen release from stamen is due to hydrostatic pressure, squeezes pollen from hole onto surface

  • Pollination vector → flies

• Found in Ominick Marsh, Manitoba

Cyperaceae ~ Sedge Family

• Stems → 3-sided, solid pith

• Leaves → in ranks of 3

• Inflorescence → called a sedge spikelet, central axis with many sessile bracts (distichous or spiral), each bract has a single flower

• Flowers → unisexual or bisexual, perianth absent or reduced to bristles, 3 stamens, ovary with 2 or 3 carpels

• One-seeded Fruit → 2-sided or 3-sided achene, triangular in shape (in cross-section)

Genus - Cyperus

• Common name → Nutsedge

• Family → Cyperaceae

• Multiple spikelet clusters on pedicels of unequal length

  • Spikelet → distichous

• Papyrus scrolls are made from pith

• Flower → Individual, Perianth absent, perfect, no bristles

• Feathery stigma on pistil (big area for pollen to land on)

Genus - Bolboschoenus

• Common name → Bayonet Grass

• Family → Cyperaceae

• Single spikelet cluster, spikelet within cluster are rays of unequal length

• Stems sharply trigonous, Cauline leaves

• Flower → bisexual, 3 stamens, perianth 3-6 bristles that are spinulose, involucral bracts exceed inflorescence

Genus - Schoenoplectus

• Common name → Bulrush

• Family → Cyperaceae

• Stem → round or oval, solid pith, does the photosynthesis

• Cauline leaves are absent

• Individual sedge spikelet are cast as a paniculate array

• 1 involucral bract that grows past inflorescence, Inflorescence is terminal

Genus - Eleocharis

• Common name → Spike Rush

• Family → Cyperaceae

• Inflorescence → terminal, one spikelet, involucre bracts absent, 3 stigmas

• Stem → Rounded, circular in cross-section, does the photosynthesis

• Cauline leaves absent, rhizomes grow in clusters

• Handful of species in Manitoba

Genus - Carex

• Common name → Sedge

• Family → Cyperaceae

• Flowers → unisexual, bract with 3 stamens (male)

• Ovary and fruit (achene) enclosed in bag-like scale, called perigynium (sometimes hairy, or with nerves)

• Inflorescence configuration variable, often with separate-sex spikelets

Juncaceae ~ Rush Family

• Leaves → sheathing, often reduced, leaves are hard to find

• Flowers → actinomorphic, scarious perianth of 6 tepals

• Fruit → capsule

Genus - Juncus

• Family → Juncaceae

• Stems → cylindrical, does the photosynthesis

• Flowers → panicle (paniculate), sometimes lateral or terminal

• T6 (tepals), A6 (stamens), G3

  • Tepals are scarious (membranous-looking)

  • 3 style branches (coiled)

• Fruit → capsule, many ovules, dry dehiscent fruit, many seeds

Poaceae ~ Grass Family

• Stems → hollow pith

• Leaves → open-sheathed, distichous arrangement, ligule at junction with blade

• Flowers → no perianth, superior ovary, single ovule, single seed, perfect

• T0, A3, G(2or3)

• Inflorescence → grass-spikelet, axis (rachilla) has 2 basal glumes + one-or-more florets

• Floret → short lateral axis with lemma, palea, and flower

• Fruit → exhibits caryopsis (also called grain), has pericarp fused to seed coat

Culm (Grasses)

• Combined blade, sheath, and stem

Testa (Grasses)

• Seed wall

  • Pericarp is the ovary wall in fruit

  • Whole structure called a grain

  • Caryopsis → fusion of testa and pericarp

Lodicules (Grasses)

• Remnant perianth in the form of two scales (paired)

Leaf-Like Bracts Around Floret (Grasses)

• Lemma (big)

  • Mostly seen

• Palea (small)

  • Sits almost on the inside

Spikelet Presentation (Grasses)

• Spike

• Raceme

• Panicle

Awn (Grasses)

• Can be seen on the glumes, sometimes on lemmas as well

  • Convenient tool to see how many lemmas are present

Genus - Zea

• Common name → Corn/Maize

• Family → Poaceae

• Inflorescence → tassels (male), not gathered (female)

• Monoecious

• Husk → modified leaf, sits around the seed

• Silks → aggregate of clusters of styles

• Grain → fusion of testa and the pericarp

• Chaff → all the bracts

Agricultural Grains

• Barley ~ Hordeum

  • Long auricles

• Rye ~ Secale

  • Short auricles

• Oat ~ Avena

  • No auricles

• Wheat ~ Triticum

  • Ciliate auricles

Auricles (Grasses)

• Extension of the blade beyond the junction of the teeth

  • Little tongues or projections

Typhaceae - Cattail Family

• Aquatic emergence with rhizome (in mud)

• Leaves → distichous

• Flowers → monoecious (male above), perianth of bristles, inflorescence is a spike

  • 3 anthers, 3 stamens, 3 fused carpels

  • Single ovule, single seed,

• Fruit → achene-like follicle, splits open along single line

• No perianth

• Gynophore → stalk that the female plant is held on

Arecaceae - Palm Family

• Arborescent stem

• Leaves → large and plicate

• Many small flowers in axillary spikes or axillary panicles

  • 3 white petals, 6 stamens, superior ovary of 3 fused carpels

• Seed and fruit (drupe) have palm oil instead if starch

• K3, C3, A6, G3

• Has sclerenchymatic pseudobark, with additional lignified cells that surround the outside

• Trunk has vascular bundles and parenchyma, trunk sometimes form an aggregate of several stems

Cocos nucifera

• Common name → Coconut palm

• Family → Arecaceae

• Leaves → Pinnately compound, plicate

• Mesocarp → fibrous layer, called coir

• Endocarp → black layer surrounding the white flesh

• Seed fills the space around the endocarp

• White flesh is the endosperm, food source for the developing seedling

  • Milk is liquid endosperm

Phoenix dactylifera

• Common name → Date Palm

• Family → Arecaceae

• Fleshy mesocarp

Bromeliaceae – Pineapple Family 

• Leaves → often in a cup-like rosette, peltate scales on leaves

  • Peltate scales → attached in the middle, like an umbrella

• Colourful bracts below flowers, sepals and petals in 3s

• Many are epiphytes

• Keystones species in the tropics

Tillandsia usneoides

• Common name → Spanish Moss

• Family → Bromeliaceae

• Grows on Oat trees in Florida and Louisiana

Tillabdsia fasciculata

• Common name → Air plant

• Family → Bromeliaceae

• Can grow without any soil

Ananas comosus

• Common name → Pineapple

• Family → Bromeliaceae

Musaceae – Banana Family 

• Flowers → monoecious, carpellate flowers (female) on inflorescence axis, staminate flowers (male) on distal on inflorescence axis

• T(5)+1, A5, G(3)

  • 5 fused tepals and 1 free one

• Grocery store variety is cultivar cavendish of Musa acuminata

  • Are without seeds, vegetatively propagated

Musa acuminata

• Common name → Banana

• Family → Musaceae

Eudicot Main Characteristic

• Tricolpate pollen

  • Sometimes Tricolporate → pore inside each colpus

  • 3 openings for each pollen grain, 3 places to send out pollen tube

  • Intine wall → made of cellulose, can be punctured by pollen tube

  • Extine wall → around the outside, made of sporopollenin, cannot be punctured

  • Appearance is cornate, like a honeycomb

Eudicot Families

• 317 families

• 420 families of flowering plants

  • Majority of flowering plants have bitegmic ovules

rbcL Gene

• Codes for rubisco

• All land plants have this

Asterids

• 109 families

  • Including Asteraceae

• Has unitegmic ovules

Rosids & Allies

• 157 families

  • Includes Rosaceae

Ranunculales

• 14 families

  • Includes Ranunculaceae and Papaveraceae

Caryophyllales Main Characteristics

• Has betalains instead of anthocyanins 

• Includes Caryophyllaceae  

Ranunculaceae & Papaveraceae Shared Characteristics

• Leaves → lobed

• Has alkaloids → secondary compounds

  • Herbivore defense chemicals, poisons the eater

  • E.g. morphine

Ranunculaceae – Buttercup Family  

• Shrubs, herbs, and lianas (woody climbers)

• Leaves → Simple, lobed, and alternate

• Flowers → distinct calyx and corolla

• Apocarpous pistils

• Fruit → aggregate of achenes

• Has alkaloids

Genus - Ranunculus 

• Common name → Buttercups

• Family → Ranunculaceae

• Usually 5 petals, but variable, can get up to 10

• Multiple (lots) stamens

Genus - Actaea

• Common name → Baneberry

• Family → Ranunculaceae

• Berries → Red or white, poisonous

• 2 genetic forms (red or white, no in-between)

• Single apocarpous pistil

Genus - Caltha

• Family → Ranunculaceae

• Brandon species is bright yellow, called Marsh marigold

• Numerous apocarpous pistils

• Aggregate of follicles

• Opens on single slit

• Petaloid calyx and no corolla

Clematis virginiana

• Common name → Virgin’s Bower

• Family → Ranunculaceae

• Leaves → opposite and compound

• Vining plant

Genus - Aconitum

• Common name → Monkshood

• Family → Ranunculaceae

• 1 of 5 petaloid sepals forms a hood, called the galea

  • Galea → bee will enter to collect nectar, petals are small and under the hood

• G3

• Has nectaries

• Highly poisonous, alkaloids are especially potent

• Found in the mountains

Genus - Aquilegia

• Common name → Columbine

• Family → Ranunculaceae

• G5, Each of the 5 petaloid sepals alternate with 5 showy petals, each petals forms a spur, with nectar produced at the end of the spur

  • Spur is part of the corolla

• Pollination vectors → hummingbirds and hawkmoths (must have long mouthparts)

Genus - Delphinium

• Common name → Larkspur

• Family → Ranunculaceae

• G3, calyx and corolla are petaloid, spur is from the calyx

• Poisonous

• 3 apocarpous pistils

Genus - Thalictrum

• Common name → Meadow Rue

• Family → Ranunculaceae

• Dioecious plants in meadows

• Waist to shoulder length high

• Has furry stigmas to catch pollen

• Found in Manitoba