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Plant Kingdom PDF
Plant Kingdom PDF
PLANT KINGDOM
Artificial classification systems
- These are earliest systems of classification.
- They were based on vegetative characters or superficial
morphological characters such as habit, colour, number
and shape of leaves, etc.
- Linnaeuss artificial system of classification was based
on the androecium structure.
Drawbacks:
- Artificial systems separated the closely related species
since they were based on a few characteristics.
- They gave equal weightage to vegetative and sexual
characteristics. This is not acceptable since the vegetative
characters are more easily affected by environment.
Natural classification systems
- These are based on natural affinities among organisms
and considered external features, internal features (ultra
structure, anatomy, embryology & phytochemistry).
ALGAE
- Algae are simple, thalloid, autotrophic, chlorophyll Agar (obtained from Gelidium & Gracilaria) is used to
bearing and aquatic (fresh water & marine) organisms.
grow microbes and in ice-creams and jellies.
- They also occur in moist stones, soils and wood.
Some marine brown & red algae produce hydrocolloids
- Some of them also occur in association with fungi
(water holding substances). E.g. algin (brown algae) and
(lichen) and animals (e.g., on sloth bear).
carrageen (red algae). These are used commercially.
- The form and size of algae is highly variable.
Protein-rich unicellular algae like Chlorella & Spirullina
o Microscopic unicellular forms: E.g. Chlamydomonas.
are used as food supplements by space travellers.
o Colonial forms: E.g. Volvox
Algae are classified into 3 classes: Chlorophyceae,
o Filamentous forms: E.g. Ulothrix and Spirogyra.
Phaeophyceae and Rhodophyceae.
Reproduction:
Chlorophyceae (green algae)
- Vegetative reproduction: By fragmentation. Each
- Unicellular, colonial or filamentous.
fragment develops into a thallus.
- They are usually grass green due to the pigments
- Asexual reproduction: By the production of spores. E.g.
chlorophyll a and b localized in chloroplasts.
zoospores (most common). They are flagellated (motile)
- The chloroplasts may be discoid, plate-like, reticulate,
and on germination gives rise to new plants.
cup-shaped, spiral or ribbon-shaped in different species.
- Sexual reproduction: Through fusion of two gametes. It
- Most of them have one or more pyrenoids (storage
is many types:
bodies) located in the chloroplasts. Pyrenoids contain
o Isogamous: Fusion of gametes similar in size. They
protein besides starch.
may be flagellated (e.g. Chlamydomonas) or non- Some algae may store food in the form of oil droplets.
flagellated (non-motile, e.g. Spirogyra).
- They have a rigid cell wall made of an inner layer of
o Anisogamous: Fusion of two gametes dissimilar in
cellulose and an outer layer of pectose.
size. E.g. Some species of Chlamydomonas.
- E.g. Chlamydomonas, Volvox, Ulothrix, Spirogyra & Chara.
o Oogamous: Fusion between one large, non-motile
Reproduction:
(static) female gamete and a smaller, motile male
o Vegetative reproduction by fragmentation or by
gamete. E.g. Volvox, Fucus.
formation of different types of spores.
Benefits of algae:
o Asexual reproduction is by flagellated zoospores
Through photosynthesis, they fix half of the total CO2 on
produced in zoosporangia.
earth and increase the level of dissolved oxygen in their
o Sexual reproduction may be isogamous, anisogamous
immediate environment.
or oogamous.
They are primary producers and form the basis of the
Phaeophyceae (brown algae)
food cycles of all aquatic animals.
- They are found primarily in marine habitats.
Many marine algae (70 species) are used as food. E.g.
- They show great variation in size and form. They range
Porphyra, Laminaria and Sargassum.
from simple branched, filamentous forms (Ectocarpus) to
profusely branched forms (e.g. kelps- 100 m in height).
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Common name
Major pigments
Stored food
Cell wall
Flagellar number &
position of insertion
Habitat
Chlorophyceae
Green algae
Chlorophyll a, b
Starch
Cellulose
Phaeophyceae
Brown algae
Chlorophyll a, c, Fucoxanthin
Mannitol, laminarin
Cellulose and algin
Rhodophyceae
Red algae
Chlorophyll a, d, Phycoerythrin
Floridean Starch
Cellulose
2, unequal, lateral
Absent
BRYOPHYTES
- They are also called amphibians of the plant kingdom
because they can live in soil but need water for sexual
reproduction.
- They occur in damp, humid and shaded localities. Found
in moist shaded areas in the hills.
- Their body is more differentiated than that of algae. It is
thallus-like and prostrate or erect, and attached to the
substratum by unicellular or multicellular rhizoids.
- They lack true roots, stem or leaves. They may possess
root-like, leaf-like or stem-like structures.
- The main plant body is haploid. It produces gametes,
hence is called a gametophyte.
- The sex organs in bryophytes are multicellular.
- The male sex organ (antheridium) produces biflagellate
antherozoids. The female sex organ (archegonium) is
flask-shaped and produces a single egg.
- Antherozoids are released into water where they come in
contact with archegonium. An antherozoid fuses with the
egg to form zygote.
- Zygotes do not undergo meiosis immediately. They
produce a multicellular body called a sporophyte.
- Sporophyte is not free-living but attached to the
photosynthetic gametophyte and derives nourishment
from it. Some cells of the sporophyte undergo meiosis to
produce haploid spores. These spores germinate to form
gametophyte.
Importance of Bryophytes:
Some mosses provide food for herbaceous mammals,
birds and other animals.
Species of Sphagnum (a moss) provide peat. It is used as
fuel. It has water holding capacity so that used as packing
material for trans-shipment of living material.
They have great ecological importance because of their
important role in plant succession on bare rocks/soil.
Mosses along with lichens decompose rocks making the
substrate suitable for the growth of higher plants.
Since mosses form dense mats on the soil, they can
prevent soil erosion.
The bryophytes are divided into liverworts and mosses.
Liverworts
- They grow usually in moist, shady habitats such as banks
of streams, marshy ground, damp soil, bark of trees and
deep in the woods.
- Their plant body is thalloid. E.g. Marchantia. Thallus is
dorsi-ventral and closely appressed to the substrate. The
leafy members have tiny leaf-like appendages in two
rows on the stem-like structures.
- Asexual reproduction: By fragmentation of thalli, or
by the formation of gemmae (sing. gemma). Gemmae
are green, multicellular, asexual buds that develop in
small receptacles (gemma cups) on the thalli. The
Mosses
- The predominant stage of the life cycle of a moss is the
gametophyte. It consists of two stages.
o Protonema stage: The first stage which develops
directly from a spore. It is a creeping, green, branched
and frequently filamentous stage.
o Leafy stage: The second stage which develops from
the secondary protonema as a lateral bud. They consist
-
PTERIDOPHYTES
They include horsetails and ferns.
- The gametophytes bear male and female sex organs
called antheridia and archegonia, respectively.
They are found in cool, damp, shady places though some
may flourish well in sandy-soil conditions.
- Water is required for transfer of antherozoids (male
gametes from antheridia) to the mouth of archegonium.
They are used for medicinal purposes and as soil-binders.
They are also frequently grown as ornamentals.
- Antherozoid fuses with the egg in the archegonium to
form zygote.
Evolutionarily, they are the first terrestrial plants to
possess vascular tissues (xylem & phloem).
- Zygote produces a multicellular well-differentiated
sporophyte (dominant phase of pteridophytes).
In bryophytes, the dominant phase in the life cycle is the
gametophytic plant body. In pteridophytes, the main
- Most of the pteridophytes produce similar kinds of
plant body is a sporophyte which is differentiated into
spores. Such plants are called homosporous. Others
true root, stem and leaves. These organs possess wellproduce two kinds of spores, macro & micro spores.
differentiated vascular tissues.
They are heterosporous. E.g. Selaginella & Salvinia.
The leaves in pteridophyta are small (microphylls) as in
- The megaspores & microspores germinate and give rise
Selaginella or large (macrophylls) as in ferns.
to female and male gametophytes, respectively. The
female gametophytes are retained on the parent
The sporophytes bear sporangia that are subtended by
leaf-like appendages called sporophylls. In some cases
sporophytes for variable periods.
sporophylls may form distinct compact structures called
- Development of the zygotes into young embryos takes
strobili or cones (Selaginella, Equisetum).
place within female gametophytes. This event is a
precursor to the seed habit. It is considered as an
Sporangia produce spores by meiosis in spore mother
important step in evolution.
cells. The spores germinate to give rise to inconspicuous,
small, multicellular, free-living, mostly photosynthetic
- The pteridophytes have 4 classes:
thalloid gametophytes called prothallus.
1. Psilopsida (Psilotum)
2. Lycopsida (Selaginella, Lycopodium)
Prothallus requires cool, damp, shady places to grow.
3. Sphenopsida (Equisetum)
Because of this restricted requirement and the need for
4. Pteropsida (Dryopteris, Pteris, Adiantum)
water for fertilization, the spread of pteridophytes is
limited and restricted to narrow geographical regions.
GYMNOSPERMS
specialized roots (coralloid roots) are associated with
Gymnosperms (gymnos: naked, sperma: seeds) are plants
N2- fixing cyanobacteria.
in which the ovules are not enclosed by ovary wall and
remain exposed before and after fertilization. Seeds that
- Stems are unbranched (Cycas) or branched (Pinus,
develop post-fertilization are not covered (naked).
Cedrus).
They include medium-sized trees or tall trees and shrubs.
- Leaves are simple or compound. They are well-adapted
The gymnosperm, Sequoia (giant redwood) is one of the
to withstand extreme temperature, humidity and wind.
tallest tree species.
- In Cycas the pinnate leaves persist for a few years. In
conifers, the needle-like leaves reduce the surface area.
The roots are generally tap roots.
Their thick cuticle and sunken stomata also help to
Roots in some genera have fungal association in the form
reduce water loss.
of mycorrhiza (Pinus). In some others (Cycas) small
Reproduction:
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MODEL QUESTIONS
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