Download Kingdom Plantae

Kingdom Plantae
General characteristics:
 Multicellular
 Eukaryotic cells with cell walls made of cellulose
 Sessile (do not move)
 Nutrition by photosynthesis (autotrophic)
 Have alternation of generations
Major Phyla (actually called Divisions):
 Bryophyta:
o Nonvascular (no system to move fluids around body)
o Can absorb water throughout entire body
o No organs (roots, stems, leaves)
o Have thin, hairy tubes called rhizoids for anchorage
o Gametophyte generation is dominant, reduced sporophyte
o Classes include the mosses, liverworts, and hornworts
 Filicophyta:
o Seedless vascular plants
o Usually long, thin leaves growing on a stem
o Sporophyte is dominant form
o Ferns are part of this division
 Sphenophyta: horsetails
 Coniferophyta:
o Cone bairing plants (seeds are in cones)
o Gymnosperms
o Needle-like leaves
o Mesozoic era was dominated by gymnosperms
o Reproduction
 The male cones first produce spores by meiosis, which develop
into pollen grains and rest on the edges of the cone. These are
carried by the wind, and some will reach the female cones in
pollination.. The pollen grains then directly enter the diploid
sporangium in the ovule, and a female spore is produced by a
meiotic division inside the sporangium; this spore becomes the
female gametophyte.
 In several months, this will produce eggs, as the male spores
produce sperm. A small tube grows from the male spore to the egg
and releases the sperm, which fertilize the egg. After fertilization,
which usually occurs over a year after pollination, the diploid
zygote develops into an embryo, and the ovule grows a tough seed
coat and becomes a seed. This will fall to the ground and
germinate, eventually growing into another tree.
 Anthophyta:
o Flowering plants
o Angiosperms
o Dominant plant on Earth today
o Broad leaves
o Reproduction
 In the life cycle of an angiosperm, the anther produces haploid spores,
o
o

which develop into pollen grains, the male gametophytes. In the ovules,
haploid spores develop into the female gametophytes, which produce
eggs. During pollination, discussed below, a pollen grain lands on the
stigma (unlike in gymnosperms, in which the pollen lands directly in the
ovule), and grows a pollen tube down the stem of the carpel and into an
ovule, through which sperm are released from the pollen grain. The
sperm fertilize the egg in the ovule, creating a diploid zygote
 After fertilization, each ovule grows into a seed with a hard coat,
containing a developing embryo and a food supply. The ovary grows
fleshy tissue and becomes a fruit, which aids in seed dispersal. After
germination, each seed can grow into a new plant.
Monocot
 Leaves have a parallel vein pattern
 Single cotyledon (seed leaf)
 Vascular tissue (xylem & phloem) are scattered in bundles in stems
Dicot
 Leaves have a netlike vein pattern
 Two cotyledons
 Vascular tissue are arranged in rings
o
Ginkophyta
o Common in the Jurassic an Cretaceous
o One species remains
o Male produces pollen, females produce unprotected ovules