Download Biology Plant Classification

19
20.2 Classification of Plants
KEY CONCEPT
Plants can be classified into nine phyla.
20.2 Classification of Plants
Fig. 19-5
Figure 19-5
Fossil evidence indicates that
bryophytes are the oldest and
angiosperms the youngest of
the four major plant groups.
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20.2 Classification of Plants
Mosses and their relatives are seedless nonvascular
plants.
• Nonvascular plants grow
close to the ground to
absorb water and nutrients.
• Seedless plants rely on freestanding water for
reproduction.
• Liverworts belong to phylum
Hepatophyta.
– often grow on wet rocks
or in greenhouses
– can be thallose or leafy
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20.2 Classification of Plants
• Mosses belong to phylum Bryophyta.
– most common seedless nonvascular plants
– sphagnum moss commonly used by humans as “peat”
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20.2 Classification of Plants
• Ferns and their relatives belong to phylum Pterophyta.
frond
fiddlehead
– whisk ferns and horsetails are close relatives of ferns
– ferns have large leaves called fronds
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20.2 Classification of Plants
Seed plants include cone-bearing plants and flowering
plants.
• Seed plants have several advantages over their seedless
ancestors.
– can reproduce without free-standing water, via
pollination
– pollination
occurs when
pollen meets
female plant
parts
– seeds
nourish and
protect plant
embryo
– seeds allow plants to disperse to new places
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20.2 Classification of Plants
• Gymnosperms do not have seeds enclosed in fruit.
– most gymnosperms are cone-bearing and evergreen.
– the cone is reproductive structure of most
gymnosperms.
– pollen is produced
in male cones.
– eggs are produced
in female cones.
– seeds develop on
scales of female
cones.
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20.2 Classification of Plants
• Conifers are gymnosperms in phylum Coniferophyta.
– most common
gymnosperms alive
today
– includes pines, spruce,
cedar, fir, and juniper
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20.2 Classification of Plants
• Angiosperms have seeds enclosed in some type of fruit.
– A flower is the reproductive structure of angiosperms.
– A fruit is a mature ovary of a flower.
• Angiosperms, or flowering plants, belong in phylum
Anthophyta.