Download Alisha Weeks Ryan Johnson Erica Thomas Arguably the most

Alisha Weeks
Ryan Johnson
Erica Thomas
• Arguably the most diverse major extant plant
group
– 260,000 living species
– 453 Families
• Occupy every environment on Earth except
high mountain tops, regions around the poles,
and the deepest oceans.
• Insects are attracted to the flowers so they crawl
onto them and are dusted with pollen.
• Then fly to the next flower and the pollen is
brushed directly onto the female plant parts.
• Throughout time, they have coevolved to
become more attractive to insects
– More vivid color, fragrances, and nectar.
• Some insects coevolved with them to become
specialists in pollinating specific plants
• Bees, insects bats and birds
• 90% of existing species are flowering plants
• Diverse in size
– Aquatic duckweed (1mm) to Eucalyptus trees
(100m)
• Most are photoautotroph, some are parasites,
carnivorous plants
• Groups used to be divided based on
number of cotyledons: tiny leaves that
form on embryo sporophytes inside
seeds.
– Two cotyledons: dicots
– One cotyledon: monocots
• Monocots branched off the dicot lineage
• Divergences from original lineages gave
rise to three dominant groups
– Magnoliids, eudicots, monocots
Butomus umbellatus
• Magnoliids
– 9,200 different kinds including
avacado, nutmeg trees, and pepper
plants
Ampelopsis
brevipedunculata
Asimina
• Eudicots (true dicots)
– 170,000 species
– Most herbaceous non-woody plants
including daisies, lettuces and
cabbages
• Monocots
– 80,000 species including orchids,
palms, lillies, grasses, and important
crop plants