VASCULAR PLANT MORPHOLOGY

Learning outcome:
i. To identify plants by their taxonomical characteristics.
ii. To list down the importance of studying plants.
iii. To state that plant morphology is an important tools
in studying plants.
iv. To differentiate between vascular plants, seed plants,
non-flowering plants and flowering plants.
v. To describe the diversity of seed plants.
vi. To differentiate between monocots and dicots
vii. To describe the diversity of flowering plants
xi. To differentiate between the root system and the
What are the characteristics of
plants?
• multicellular
• non-motile
• eukaryotic
• cell walls comprised of cellulose
• autotrophic
• exhibits alternation of generations -
• has a distinctive diploid (sporophyte) and
• haploid (gametophyte) phase.
 Why study plants?
We are dependent on plants in many ways.

• food • moderate our climate by

• air increasing rainfall,
buffering wind
• materials (fibres) used
in clothing • help control soil salinity
and erosion
• source of energy
(coal) • an important aesthetic
value.
• building materials
• medicines and other
chemicals
 Plant morphology

• study of the external structure or form of

plants
• studies the diversity in forms, with the naked
eye or slight optical magnification
• concerning various growth forms that plants
take and how such morphologies contribute
to the success of each species.
• served largely as a handmaiden for
systematics
 Seed plants
• Vascular plants that produce seeds, which
include:
Gymnosperms (plants with naked seed)

Bristle cone pines- Giant Redwoods -

the oldest trees the tallest trees
 Angiosperms (flowering plants)

• major types of vegetation found on land.

• seeds help disperse plants and are able to survive the
harshest conditions. Some can survive for years
waiting for just the right conditions to sprout.
• Seed plants have stems, true roots, and leaves with a
cuticle and stomata for aerial gas exchange. Most
have non-flagellated or non-motile sperm and require
other pollination vectors such as wind, insects, or
birds.
• The sporophyte is the larger, dominant generation
which maintains itself by photosynthesis and nutrient
uptake. The gametophyte, however, is greatly
reduced and nutritionally dependent on the
sporophyte.
 Flowering Plants

• Comprise about 90 percent of the Kingdom

Plantae.
• The total number of described species exceeds
230,000, and many tropical species are as yet
unnamed.
• During the past 130 million years, flowering
plants have colonized practically every
conceivable habitat on earth: deserts, alpine,
grasslands, freshwater marshes, dense forests
and mountain meadows as well as aquatic
habitats.
 Flowering Plants
• Produce flowers and seed-bearing fruits.
• Represent an extraordinary diverse group of
life forms. They come in variety of shapes and
sizes:
• Minute plants: Wolffia globosa - less than a
millimeter (1/25th of an inch) long.
• Giant trees:
Eucalyptus regnans - over 300 feet (100 m) tall.
Although the current record-holder for tallest tree is
actually a 367 foot (112 m) conifer called the
California redwood (Sequoia sempervirens).
 Flowering Plants

Adansonia digitata - a South African baobab tree, one

of the most massive flowering plants. The enormous
trunk may exceed 100 feet in circumference and store
25,000 gallons of water weighing 100 tons
 Flowering Plants

The evolution of the flowering plants

split them into two major groups - the
monocotyledonous plants (monocots)
and dicotyledonous plants (dicots).
Most angiosperms are dicotyledonous.
There are several characteristics which
separate these two groups.
 Monocots Dicots

Cotyledon 1 2

Floral Arrangement 3's 4's and 5's

Leaf Venation Parallel Net

Vascular bundles Scattered Ring

Habit Herbaceous Herbaceous + Woody

Roots Fibrous Taproot

Pollen grain 1 pore 3 pores

Growth Primary only Primary and Secondary

Examples: Grass, Palm, Oaks, Roses,

Orchid Sunflowers
 Diversity of Seed Plants

The following body plans are

recognized:-
Herb - non-woody, small plant
Shrub - woody, multi-trunked plant
Tree - woody, single-trunked plant
Vine - twining or climbing plant
Several variations to the different body plans
Lianas woody vines of
tropical forests - rooted
in the ground, spreading
over the canopy.

Epiphytes - plants rooted on other plants

(but not parasitizing these), simply using
the other plant as a foot hold to get into
the light.
e.g. members of the pineapple
(Bromeliad), orchid,
and anthurium (Aroid) families
 Giant herbs - bananas, some gingers and
heliconias grow to a considerable height
without woodiness or even a true stem.
What appears to be the trunk is actually the
leaf bases, wrapped one around the next.
The banana "tree" is one such giant herb.

Arborescent monocots - some woody

monocots (e.g. species of Yucca,
Dracaena, Pandanus, Agave) have
secondary growth but quite different to
that found in dicots. An outer ring of
dividing cells produces on the inside new
parenchyma with scattered vascular
Aloe pillansii in South
bundles.
Africa
Palms - just below the apical
mersitem, a second (primary
thickening) meristem develops
which broadens the growing point.
This very broad stem then simply
elongates, with vascular bundles
and fibres at the periphery lending
strength to the palm trunk.

Bamboos - are woody grasses which attain, in

some cases, tree-like stature. Their strength is due
to the large numbers of vascular bundles and
fibres in the stem periphery, the central pith
eventually dying. Bamboos grow extremely rapidly
but reach a finite height (determinate growth). New
shoots then emerge from the underground stem
(rhizome).
 Based on their morphological adaptations and
modes of life. Seed plants are categorized into 5
groups:
1. Epiphyte
2. Parasitic plants
3. Creepers
4. Aquatic plants
5. Free-living plants

Based on the availability of water, seed plants are

categorized into 3 groups:

1. Xerophyte
2. Hydrophyte
3. Mesophyte
 THE PLANT BODY

The plant body is divided into:

The Shoot system – aboveground system -- stem,
leaves, flowers, buds, fruits.
The Root system – underground system – roots
Both systems depend on one another. Materials
travel between the shoot and roots in the vascular
system.