Testing and Applying Your Understanding

1. From a survival standpoint, is it more advantageous for a plant to spend most of its time in a haploid or diploid stage? Explain your answer.

Diploid stage has two set of chromosomes and genetic protection, protecting the organisms that more resilient to harmful mutations for long-term survival.

2. Different people have different opinions on what the term “success” means in an evolutionary context. Based on what you have learned in this chapter, which plant group would you consider to be the most evolutionarily successful? Justify your answer by explaining how you define success.

Success is to be able to survive, reproduce, and diversify. Angiosperms grow in every environment on earth, flowers attract pollination, and produce fruits after fertilization, with well-nourished seeds.

3. Many people assume that carnivorous plants act like animals—eating their prey and not performing photosynthesis. Explain why carnivorous plants use insects to supplement their photosynthetic efforts.

Carnivorous grows in places where the soil is poor in nutrients and nitrogen, requiring them to obtain essential nutrients from their prey to support their growth.

4. Describe the process of alternation of generations in plants. What benefits come from having this sort of life cycle?

Sporophyte (diploid)- makes spores, spores grow into gametophyte, makes sperm and egg, then zygote.

Gamephyote (haploid)- tiny, makes gametes

5. Which types of plants reproduce with spores? What are the advantages to these groups from using spores as their reproductive structures?

Non-Vascular plants, and seedless vascular plants

Easily spread, Don’t fertilize right away, and survive harsh conditions

6. Suppose a plant of an unknown type seems to be producing profuse amounts of pollen. From this information, what method of pollination would you expect? Explain your answer.

Wind pollination because it gives a higher chance of a successful pollination to produce more since its not direct.

7. Describe how the process of double fertilization improves the quality of seeds in the angiosperms.

Double fertiliztion gives the seed a tissue called endrosperm that feeds the embryo

8. Why is it so difficult to pinpoint the exact size of many fungi?

Fungi is hidden, live inside thing. Mycelium spre,ds which is thier real body a

9. The media often presents stories of “toxic mold,” which develops in buildings and makes people sick. What adaptations do these fungi have that allow them to cause human illness?

Fungi releases spores that we breathe in and make toxins that are harmful. It will invade the immune system, complicating our body's ability to fight infections and potentially leading to serious health issues.