3: Campus Plant Walk
Land plants can be divided into 3 major groups based on reproductive type. These types are as follows:
- Angiosperms: plants that produce flowers and seeds encased in fruits (angio = vessel, sperma = seeds)
- Gymnosperms: plants that produce cones or specialized structures called strobill, on which seeds are borne naked and not enclosed in a fruit (gymno = naked)
- Seed-free or seedless: plants that do not produce seeds at any point in their life cycle and reproduce instead by spores only. There are two major groups of seed-free plants: * Ferns, lycopods, and allies: seed-free plants with vascular (water- and nutrient-conducting) tissues. * Bryophtyes: seed-free plants without vascular tissue, including mosses
Growth Habit
Trees: tall perennial woody plants with a single dominant stem (trunk) with a definite axis
Shrubs: short perennial woody plants typically having several stems arising from or near the soil; may have a more diffuse branching pattern.
Vines: woody or herbaceous plants that require another object to support its stems
Herbs: nonwoody plants. Stems are usually fleshy and somewhat flexible at maturity.
Leaf Duration:
Deciduous: plants losing most or all leaves on a seasonal basis. Most deciduous leaves are thin and pliable.
Evergreen: plants with leaves persisting >1 year such that the plant always has some leaves. The exact life span of leaves is species-specific.
Semi-evergreen: plants that abcise some but not all of their leaves on a seasonal basis.
Flora Origins:
Native: evolved in that location or descended from ancestors that dispersed there naturally. Not introduced to that location by humans.
Nonnative (or exotic): introduced to that location by humans sometimes nonnative plants “naturalize” or are assimilated into the natural landscape.
Horticultural introduction: human manipulation of natural forms (native or nonnative), resulting in plants that would not normally occur or survive in nature. These plants are usually derived through hybridization, selective breeding, grafting, etc.
Specimens
Specimen #1: Magnolia grandiflora. Common name: Southern magnolia.
Life Cycle Classification: Angiosperm
Growth Habit: Tree
Origin: Native
Leaf Duration: Evergreen
Unique Feature: has fruitlike berry, scars on stem from growth