Name: Date:

Biology 11: Kingdom Plantae

Unit Topics

1. Analyze how the increasing complexity of algae, mosses, and ferns represent an evolutionary
continuum of adaptation to a land environment.

a) Examine green algae and describe the characteristics that unify them
b) Use examples of unicellular, colonial, and multicellular green algae to illustrate their increasing
complexity
c) Examine mosses and describe the characteristics that unify them (p.346)
d) Examine ferns and describe the characteristics that unify them (p.347)
e) Describe alternation of generations in algae, mosses, and ferns
f) Describe features of mosses and ferns that have enabled adaptation to a land environment

2. Analyze how the increasing complexity of gymnosperms and angiosperms contribute to

survival in a land environment

a) Examine gymnosperms and describe the characteristics that unify them

b) Explain how gymnosperms are adapted for survival in a land environment with respect to the
following: alternation of generations, roots, stems, leaves, seeds, pollen, vascular tissue (p.348 to
349)
c) Examine angiosperms and describe characteristics that unify them (p.350 to 351)
d) Use specimens to differentiate between monocots and dicots (p.623 )
e) Describe how angiosperms are adapted for survival in a land environment, with respect to
alternation of generations, flowers, pollen, enclosed seeds, fruit, roots, stems, leaves, vascular
tissue
f) Compare the ways in which mosses, ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms have adapted to a
land environment (p.342 +)

Vocabulary

adaptation, alternation of generations, colonial, dicots, enclosed seeds, flowers, fruit, leaves,
monocots, multicellular, pollen, roots, seeds, stems, unicellular, vascular tissue

Biology 11: Plant diversity Page 1

 Biology 11: Kingdom Plantae
Evolution of Plants

1. Plant Common Ancestor

-Land plants and green algae (Charophytes) share many common features
and as such it is believed that they evolved from a common ancestor that
also possessed these characteristics:
Photosynthetic (manufacture of organic molecules), eukaryotic. They also have
morphological, biochemical and genetic similarities.

-Since they started to move onto the land 475mya, land plants have had to evolve to cope
with very different environmental conditions than their algal relatives. What are some
new challenges that living on land posed?
-Maintain body moisture, support their weight against gravity in a non-buoyant medium,
reproduce/disperse offspring without water, anchor bodies to soil, obtain resources from
both soil and air.

-What were some benefits to living on land rather than in the water?
-Unfiltered sunlight, abundance of CO2, few pathogens and herbivores to start.

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As illustrated in the diagrams above and below, plants have made numerous adaptations
to successfully colonize land. Some of them that we will discuss are:

a) Maintaining Moisture:
-Achieved by leaves and stems being covered by a waxy cuticle that prevents water loss.
-Gas exchange occurs through pores called stomata, which are open while the sun is out
and closed at night to prevent water loss through evaporation.

b) Obtaining Soil and Air Resources:

-Plants have specialized structures to extract resources from:

i) Soil:
-Roots anchor plants and absorb water and mineral nutrients from the soil. Roots grow
outwards from apical meristems to increase the surface area for absorption.
-Vascular tissue (cells joined into tubes) carries water and nutrients from the roots to the
entire plant body.

Biology 11: Plant diversity Page 3

ii) Air
-Leaves obtain CO2 from the air and light from the sun. They also grow from apical
meristems.

c) Supporting Body Weight:

-Air provides less support than water, so land plant cell walls are thickened with a
chemical called lignin.

d) Reproduction and Dispersal:

i) Fertilization:
-Like animals, reproduction on land required the development of specialized structures to
allow fertilization to happen in the absence of water.
-The most advanced plants have pollen grains containing sperm that are able to be carried
by the wind or animals to the egg.

ii) Embryo Development:

-Unlike algae, the zygote (fertilized egg) remains attached to and nourished by the parent
plant during development.

iii) Offspring Dispersal:

-Like reptiles, the most advanced plants protect their offspring in seeds. Unique to plants
is that these seeds actually function in dispersal.

*Not all of the above characteristics are found in every plant! The first plants to evolve
were, like amphibians, restricted to moist areas because they relied on water to carry
sperm to the egg, for example.

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2. Relationships Between Plant Groups

-The diagram below highlights one view of the relationships between plants.

What is a major difference between the bryophytes (non-vascular plants) and the vascular
plants?

-Bryophytes have no vascular tissue, water and nutrients are absorbed through thin
leaves.

-Rhizoids are primitive roots in moss which are used only for anchorage (no water or
nutrient absorption)

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3. Alternation of Generations
-Plants have both haploid and diploid generations in their life cycles (text 346).
-Use Figure 17.3 to complete this diagram, which illustrates alternation of generations in
plant life cycles.

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 Nonvascular plants: Bryophytes

-Bryophytes are primitive plants. They have evolved some characteristics which allow
them to survive on land, but they still need to be in a moist environment.

-Nonvascular plants consist of three divisions:

Liverworts

Diploid

Haploid

Mosses Hornworts

Characteristics common to all nonvascular plant (Bryophytes) are (text 344):

1. Lack cells that transport water and nutrients (vascular tissue)

2. No true roots, stems or leaves. They have rhizoids for anchorage.

3. Gametophyte is dominant, sporophyte is dependent on the gametophyte.

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Mosses (text 346-347)

1. Describe the habitat of moss and explain why they have to live in these areas:
-Moist, shady, cool areas. Require moisture for sperm to swim to egg; Don’t have true
roots to collect water efficiently.

-Examine the Moss Life Cycle animation on the text website (Chapter 17) and use text
346-347 to illustrate the moss life cycle diagram below:

*Examine the Bryophytes in the classroom and complete the lab package.

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 Seedless Vascular plants
-These are the first land plants to possess vascular tissue and modern examples include:

Examples of these are whisk ferns, club mosses, horsetails and true ferns.

Also Fig 17.2C

Whisk Fern Horse Tail

True Ferns Club Moss

Biology 11: Plant diversity Page 9

-Moss-like plants were joined by seedless vascular
plants 420 million years ago. Because of their
vascular tissue and rigid cell walls, these new plants
were capable of ranging in height from one metre to
as large as trees! -Seedless vascular plants formed
the great swamp forests of the Carboniferous Period.
Because of the anaerobic swamp environment these plants were not decomposed
completely after they died and were later transformed by the heat and pressure of
overlying sediments into peat and coal.

-Fossil evidence indicates that these plants

differed from bryophytes as they possessed
vascular tissue. There are two types of
vascular tissue:

1. Xylem: Dead, hollow cells joined together

to make tubes, this tissue transports a
solution of water and inorganic nutrients
(xylem sap) from the roots to the leaves.

2. Phloem: Living cells with their

nucleus moved into a companion cell
so that the cytoplasm can transport a
sugary liquid (phloem sap) from:
i) Sugar Source (leaves) to Sugar Sink
(Roots).
ii) Sugar Sink to growing shoots and
roots.
Ferns
How are ferns different in their life cycle from that of other non-vascular plants?
-Sporphyte and gametophyte generations are separate and independent from each other.
-The gametophyte (heart-shaped) holds male and female reproductive structures on the
underside.

-Examine the Moss Life Cycle animation on the text website (Chapter 17) and use text
347 to illustrate the moss life cycle diagram below:
 Gymnosperms
-Gymnosperms are plants that have vascular tissue and seeds! However, their seeds are
called “naked” as they are not protected within a fruit.
-Some gymnosperms that you may recognize are:

Ginko bilboa Cycad

Fir Yew Cedar

-All gymnosperms possess cones, which are modified leaves of the sporophyte. Each
“leaf” or scale contains a sporangium that produces spores by meiosis. Unlike seedless
plants, these spores are not released but develop into the gametophyte within the cone.
The gametophyte later releases gametes that combine to form a new sporophyte.
-Examine the Gymnosperm Life Cycle animation on the text website (Chapter 17) and
use text 349 to illustrate the gymnosperm life cycle diagram below:

1. Where are the male and female gametophytes in seed plants?

-Male (pollen grain) is produced by meiosis of the spore in the male cone.
-Female (egg) is produced by meiosis of the spore mother cell inside the ovule in the
female cone.
2. What is a seed?
-A seed is an embryo sporophyte packaged with a food supply inside a protective coat.
3. How does pollen help gymnosperms to adapt to life on land?
It carries the male gametophyte to the female gametophyte in the wind so that water is
not needed in fertilization.
4. How do seeds help gymnosperms to adapt to life on land?
They have a food supply for the embryo sporophyte and they can remain dormant until
conditions are right for growth. Can also be modified for dispersal
5. As land plants evolved to become better adapted to life on land, what happened to the
relative dominance of the sporophyte and gametophyte generations? (use the diagram
below to answer this question.)
In the early land plants like bryophytes the gametophyte is dominant and the sporophyte
was dependent on it. In the more advanced land plants the sporophyte is dominant and the
gametophyte is small. In the most advanced land plants the gametophyte is microscopic
and completely dependent on the sporophyte.

Overview of Alternation of Generations in Plants

Angiosperms
-Angiosperms are flowering plants that have vascular tissue and enclose their seeds inside
of fruit. They are the largest and most successful group of plants and include:

Echinacea Cherry Trees

Raspberries Pineapple

-Analyse the diagram right to understand how the

part of the flower perform the same functions as
the cones in gymnosperms.
-Label the diagram of the flower below and answer the questions that follow (text 350)

1. What are the functions of a flower?

-To produce pollen and seeds. Seeds are inside ‘fruit.’
-Some flowers attract animals for pollination and others use wind.

2. How did fruit containing enclosed seeds

evolve?
-Ovules have become enclosed by the
modified leaves that produce them. The
modified leaves form the ovary.

3. Which part of a flower develops into the seed? ___ovule______

4. Which part of the flower develops into the fruit? ____ovary______

5. How does pollination take place?

1. Animal pollination carries pollen from stamen to stigma
2. Wind blows pollen from stamen to stigma

-Examine the Angiosperm Life Cycle animation on the text website (Chapter 17) and use
text 351 to illustrate the angiosperm life cycle diagram below

Fruit Formation (text 637)

What part of the flower develops into a fruit? ____ovary________

This table compares different types of fruits: