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Evolution of Plants

Lec 17 Plant Diversity

Adaptations for life on land

Plant Adaptations for Life on Plant Adaptations for Life on

Land Land
• Waxy cuticle: a Xylem on
• Roots: to absorb water, anchor the plant
waterproof coating left,
on outside Phloem • Leaves with stomata: photosynthetic
on right surfaces. Stomata are holes in the leaf
• Vascular tissue:
that can open and close
plant “plumbing” to Blue lines
distribute food and represent
water Xylem for vascular
water, Phloem for tissue
food. • Pollen and seeds: reproductive adaptations
• Flowers: reproductive adaptations

Spore Capsules
Nonvascular Plants
Seedless
Vascular
Plants

Mosses to Ferns 5 6

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Divisions
•
•
Bryophyta – Moss
Hepatophyta – liverworts
Bryophytes
• Anthocerophyta - hornworts
• Pterophyta - Ferns

7 8

Characteristics Mosses
• Includes liverworts, hornworts, • Division Bryophyta
and mosses
• Small, nonvascular
• Lack vascular tissue (xylem & plants
phloem) to carry water and food • NO true roots, stems,
• Go through Alternation of or leaves
generations (sporophyte & • Grow in moist areas
gametophyte stage) (brick walls, as thick
mats on the forest
• Gametophyte is dominant stage floor, on the sides of
• Reproduce by spores trees) Moss gametophytes
9 10

Mosses Mosses
• Some can survive • Have a outer waxy
short dry spells Cuticle to prevent
• Must grow close water loss
together for their
life cycle • Have root like Rhizoids
• H2O moves by to anchor the plant,
diffusion from cell but NOT absorb water
to cell • Leaf like gametophyte
• Sperm must swim supports sporophyte
to egg through with spore capsule
drops of water
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Mosses Sphagnum Moss

• There are haploid
male and female • Known for its
moss plants (the moisture holding
green parts) that capacity
make gametes
• Absorbs 20 times
• Swimming sperm.
its weight in water
• Simple vascular
tissue (xylem only) • Used by florists to
• Waxy cuticle keep plant roots
moist
• Leaves
• Simple roots
14

Fig. 37.4

Uses for Moss Plants

• Help decompose dead wood
• Serve as pioneer plants on bare
rock or ground
• Help prevent erosion
• Provide shelter for insects & small
animals
• Used as nesting material by birds
• Peat moss is burned as fuel
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Asexual Reproduction in Moss Sexual Reproduction in Moss

• May occur by
Fragmentation (pieces of
gametophyte break off
& form new moss plants
• May occur by Gemmae
(tiny cup shaped
structures on
gametophytes)
• Rain drops separate
gemmae from the parent
plant so they spread &
form new moss plants
• Moss alternate between a dominant
haploid (1n) Gametophyte and a
diploid (2n) Sporophyte
• Gametophytes produce gametes (eggs
& sperm) containing half the
chromosome number
• Sporophytes have a complete set of
chromosomes & produces spores by
meiosis
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Sexual Reproduction in Moss

• The sporophyte is
smaller & attached to
the gametophyte
• Sporophyte lacks
chlorophyll & gets food
from the gametophyte
• Sporophyte has a long,
slender stalk topped
with a spore producing
capsule
19

Liverworts
Liverworts

• Most primitive land plants

• No vascular tissue
• Must live in very wet environment
• Depend on water for reproduction
(swimming sperm)
• Have cuticle, leaves

Fig. 37.6 Fig. 37.7

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Mosses

• Ferns

• Ferns have very large fronds (leaves) that
grow from a rhizome; ferns have vascular
tissue and have true roots, stems and leaves.
• Sporangia are within sori on the underside of
the leaflets of a frond; meiosis occurs within
a sporangium, producing spores.
• A windblown spore develops into a separate
gametophyte, a heart-shaped prothallus, that
bears both egg-producing archegonia and
sperm-producing antheridia.
29-27
• When a flagellated sperm fertilizes an egg,
the zygote develops into a young
sporophyte.
• Although ferns are likely to be found in
moist habitats due to flagellated sperm,
vegetative (asexual) reproduction is used to
disperse ferns in dry habitats.
• Ferns are used to decorate bouquets and
as ornamental plants in homes and gardens.
• Wood from tropical tree ferns is used as a
building material, and fiddleheads are
sometimes eaten as a delicacy.
29-28

Fern diversity

Ferns

29-29

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Ferns
• First complete Devonian Ferns – Dinosaur times 250 mya
vascular tissue
(has both xylem
and phloem)
• True stems
• No flowers,
seeds, fruits
• Swimming sperm
• Has waxy Their vascular tissue allowed them to grow up to 90 feet
cuticle, leaves, tall. These were major forest plants. Their fossilized
remains became coal in many places.
roots

GYMNOSPERMS Gymnosperms
• Introduction – Gymnosperm means “naked First Seeds, first pollen, no flowers,
seed” (From the Greek: gymnos = naked; no fruits
sperm = seed)
• More advanced than ferns – do not have
spores, they have seeds.
• The seeds of the gymnosperms lack a
protective enclosure (unlike flowering plants
which have flowers and fruit).
• Examples of gymnosperms:
• Conifers (pine trees), cycads,
ginkgo biloba

Gymnosperms
Female cones
• Male and female cones
• NOT dependent on
water to reproduce
• Naked (gym) seeds in
the petals of female
cone
• Often needle bearing
• Often “evergreen”
(except cypress trees,
tamaracs, gingko)

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Male pine cones releasing pollen Ginko – the gymnosperm

• Male cones
without needles
• Ginkos are some of the most ancient types of
are usually so trees, Originally from China
small that • There are male and female trees
they are not • The stinky “fruit” is really not a fruit. It’s a
soft seed.
noticed (about
1-2 cm long).
• Pollen is
produced in
these cones.

Gymnosperm life cycle

• Exhibits
alternation of
generations
• Sporophyte
generation (2n) is
Gymnosperm
dominant life cycle
• Gametophyte
generation (1n) is
contained in and
dependent on the
sporophyte
generation

Sporophyte generation Wood produced by gymnosperms

• Sporophyte produces two types of • Gymnosperms have a
spores (heterosporous) very efficient and
• Megasporangium – undergoes effective vascular
meiosis to produce megaspores system
(female gametophyte) • Usually woody plants
• ________sporangium – undergoes
meiosis to produce haploid microspores,
• Xylem
wood of a tree
germinate to produce male gametophyte • Phloem
bark of the
(pollen) tree
• Many gymnosperms use wind • Wood is formed
for pollination and seed dispersal from secondary growth