GROUP NO.

7
E A R L Y P L A N T L I F E
 EARLY PLANT LIFE

The kingdom Plantae constitutes large and varied

groups of organisms. There are more than 300,000
species of catalogued plants. Of these, more than
260,000 are seed plants. Mosses, ferns, conifers, and
flowering plants are all members of the plant kingdom.
Most biologists also consider green algae to be plants,
although others exclude all algae from the plant
kingdom. The reason for this disagreement stems from
the fact that only green algae, the Charophytes, share
common characteristics with land plants (such as using
chlorophyll a and b plus carotene in the same
proportion as plants). These characteristics are absent
in other types of algae.
GREEN ALGAE
what is algae?
a simple, nonflowering, and typically aquatic plant of a large group that
includes the seaweeds and many single-celled forms. Algae contain
chlorophyll but lack true stems, roots, leaves, and vascular tissue.

why algae is important?

They play a vital role in aquatic ecosystems by forming the energy base of
the food web for all aquatic organisms. As autotrophic organisms, algae
convert water and carbon dioxide to sugar through the process of
photosynthesis.
EVOLUTIONARY
PATHWAY TO
PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Overwhelming evidence indicates that eukaryotic

photosynthesis originated from endosymbiosis of
cyanobacterial-like organisms, which ultimately became
chloroplasts (Margulis, 1992). So the evolutionary origin
of photosynthesis is to be found in the bacterial domain.

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 01
C3
C3 photosynthesis is the predominant way plants will take
in carbon dioxide and produce carbohydrates. In C3
photosynthesis Rubisco takes the CO2 and it is reduced
into carbohydrates all in the same place and time. By that,
I mean in the same cell chloroplast and during the day
(sunshine) when the stomata are open and the CO2 is
entering the cell and the water is leaving through the
same opening.
02
C4 CAM (crassulacean acid metabolism)
Now let us transition to some of the C4 grasses, also
known as “warm season grasses” such as corn, sorghum,
crab grass, sugarcane, bermuda grass, and foxtail. These
plants have rubisco in one cell and they have a
mechanism of pulling the CO2 in a different cell that is
connected by openings between the cells called
plasmodesmata connecting the two cells together. So
what happens is that the plant can concentrate its CO2
where the rubisco is located and prevent that oxygen
inhibition caused in the C3 mechanism.
03
Finally there is CAM photosynthesis. CAM is found in desert
plants. What these plants do is open up their stomata at night
to allow CO2 in to minimize the water loss during the hot
days. The CO2 is stored in the plant vacuole as malic acid
during the night. When the desert sun comes out, the
stomatal openings are closed and the CO2 is “removed” from
the malic acid to then be introduced to rubisco and make
carbohydrates. By comparison, CAM is even more water
efficient than C4 is. If C4 is 40% more water efficient, CAM is
83% more efficient as compared to most C3 photosynthetic
processes. Cacti, many succulents, and the pineapple have
CAM photosynthetic metabolism.
PLANT ADAPTATION
TO LIFE ON LAND
Plant Adaptation to life on land As organisms adapted to life on
land, they had to contend with several challenges in the terrestrial
environment. The cell ‘s interior is mostly water: in this medium,
small molecules dissolve and diffuse and the majority of the
chemical reactions of metabolism take place. Desiccation, or
drying out, is a constant danger for organisms exposed to air.
Even when parts of a plant are close to a source of water, the
aerial structures are prone to desiccation. Water also provides
buoyancy to organisms. On land, plants need to develop structural
support in a medium that does not give the same lift as water. The
organism is also subject to bombardment by mutagenic radiation
because air does not filter out the ultraviolet rays of sunlight.
Additionally, the male gametes must reach the female gametes
using new strategies because swimming is no longer possible. As
such, both gametes and zygotes must be protected from
desiccation. Successful land plants have developed strategies to
face all of these challenges. Not all adaptations appeared at once;
some species never moved very far from the aquatic environment,
although others went on to conquer the driest environments on
Earth.
ADDITIONAL LAND
PLANT ADAPTATION

Early land plants, like the early land animals, did not live far from an abundant
source of water and developed survival strategies to combat dryness. One of
these strategies is called desiccation tolerance. Many mosses can dry out to a
brown and brittle mat, but as soon as rain or a flood makes water available,
mosses will absorb it and are restored to their healthy green appearance.
Another strategy is to colonize environments where droughts are uncommon.
Ferns, which are considered an early lineage of plants, thrive in damp and cool
places such as the understory of temperate forests. Later, plants moved away
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from moist or aquatic environments and developed resistance to desiccation,
rather than tolerance. These plants, like cacti, minimize the loss of water to
such an extent they can survive in extremely dry environments.
 MAJOR DIVISION OF LAND PLANTS

Seedless Plants Seed Plants

AN INCREDIBLE VARIETY OF SEEDLESS PLANTS

POPULATES THE TERRESTRIAL LANDSCAPE.
A spermatophyte, also known as
MOSSES MAY GROW ON A TREE TRUNK, AND phanerogam or phaenogam, is
HORSETAILS MAY DISPLAY THEIR JOINTED STEMS
AND SPINDLY LEAVES ACROSS THE FOREST FLOOR. any plant that produces seeds,
TODAY, SEEDLESS PLANTS REPRESENT ONLY A
SMALL FRACTION OF THE PLANTS IN OUR hence the alternative name seed
ENVIRONMENT; YET, THREE HUNDRED MILLION
YEARS AGO, SEEDLESS PLANTS DOMINATED THE
plant. Spermatophytes are a
LANDSCAPE AND GREW IN THE ENORMOUS subset of the embryophytes or
SWAMPY FORESTS OF THE CARBONIFEROUS
PERIOD. THEIR DECOMPOSITION CREATED LARGE land plants
DEPOSITS OF COAL THAT WE MINE TODAY.
ANIMAL POLLINATION
In animal pollination, the plants
depend on animals to transfer pollen
from one flower to another. Most
flowers use a concentrated sugar
solution, called nectar, to lure animal
pollinators. These vectors can include
wind, water, birds, insects, butterflies,
bats, and other animals that visit
flowers. We call animals or insects that
transfer pollen from plant to plant
“pollinators”. Pollination is usually the
unintended consequence of an
animal's activity on a flower. Birds,
bats, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles,
wasps, small mammals, and most
importantly, bees are pollinators. They
visit flowers to drink nectar or feed off
of pollen and transport pollen grains as
they move from spot to spot.
PLANT POLLINATION
Transferring pollen grains from a
flower's male anther to its female
stigma is the process of pollination.
Every living thing, including plants,
strives to produce progeny for the
following generation. Making seeds is
one method through which plants can
create progeny. The genetic material
needed to create a new plant is found
in seeds. Not only is the natural history
of pollination intriguing. It is a crucial
ecological survival mechanism. The
human race and all terrestrial
ecosystems on earth would not exist
without pollinators. Nearly 80% of the
1,400 crop plants that are cultivated
globally, i.e., those that provide all of
our food and plant-based industrial
products, require animal pollination.
ACTIVITY

Draw and Label the parts of SEED PLANTS

Submission until 11:59pm
THANK YOU