Colonizing Land

• A plant is a multicellular eukaryote that carries out

photosynthesis and has a set of adaptations for
living on land.
• Photosynthesis distinguishes plants from the
animal and fungal kingdoms, which are also made
up of eukaryotic, multicellular organisms.

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 Structure/Function: Adaptations of the Plant
Body
• The complex bodies of plants have organs
specialized in different ways to function in these
two environments.
• Subterranean organs called roots anchor the plant
in soil and absorb minerals and water from the soil.
• Above ground, leaf-bearing shoots carry out
photosynthesis.

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 Structure/Function: Adaptations of the Plant
Body
• Leaves are the main photosynthetic organs of
most plants, utilizing
• stomata, microscopic pores found on a leaf’s
surface, for the exchange of carbon dioxide and
oxygen with the atmosphere,
• a waxy layer coating the leaves and other aerial
parts of most plants called the cuticle, for the
retention of water, and
• vascular tissue, a network of tube-shaped cells
that branch throughout the plant, for the transport
of vital materials between roots and shoots.

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Figure 16.3

Vascular tissue

Oak leaf
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Figure 16.7

PLANT DIVERSITY
Bryophytes Ferns Gymnosperms Angiosperms
(nonvascular (seedless (naked-seed (flowering plants)
plants) vascular plants) plants)

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 Bryophytes

• Mosses, which are bryophytes, may sprawl as low

mats over acres of land.
• Mosses display two of the key terrestrial
adaptations that made the move onto land
possible:
1. a waxy cuticle that helps prevent dehydration and
2. the retention of developing embryos within the
female plant.

• Mosses need water to reproduce because their

sperm swim to reach eggs within the female
gametangium.
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 Ferns

• Ferns are by far the most diverse seedless

vascular plants, with more than 12,000 known
species.
• The sperm of ferns, like those of mosses,
• have flagella and
• must swim through a film of water to fertilize eggs.

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 Gymnosperms

• Near the end of the Carboniferous period, the

climate turned drier and colder, favoring the
evolution of seed plants, which can
• complete their life cycles on dry land and
• withstand long, harsh winters.

• The descendants of early gymnosperms include

the conifers, or cone-bearing plants.

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 Angiosperms

• Angiosperms dominate the modern landscape and

are represented by about 250,000 species.
• Their success is largely due to refinements in
vascular tissue that make water transport more
efficient and the evolution of the flower.

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 Flowers, Fruits, and the Angiosperm Life Cycle

• Flowers are the site of procreation.

• This showiness helps to attract insects and other
animals that transfer pollen from one flower to
another of the same species.

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 Flowers, Fruits, and the Angiosperm Life Cycle

• Angiosperms that rely on wind pollination

• include grasses and many trees,
• have much smaller, less flamboyant flowers, and
• allocate the plant’s reproductive energy to making
massive amounts of pollen for release into the wind.

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 Flowers, Fruits, and the Angiosperm Life Cycle

• A flower is a short stem bearing modified leaves

that are attached in concentric circles at its base.
• Sepals
• form the outer layer,
• are usually green, and
• enclose the flower before it opens.
• Next inside are petals, which are often colorful and
help to attract pollinators.

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 Flowers, Fruits, and the Angiosperm Life Cycle

• Stamens, the male reproductive structures, are

below the petals. Pollen grains develop in the
anther, a sac at the top of each stamen.

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Figure 16.17
Petal

Stigma
Anther
Stamen Style Carpel
Filament
Ovary

Ovule Sepal
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 Flowers, Fruits, and the Angiosperm Life Cycle

• Carpels are the female reproductive structure at the

center of the flower. The carpel includes
• the ovary, a protective chamber containing one or
more ovules in which the eggs develop, and
• the sticky tip of the carpel, the stigma, which traps
pollen.

• The basic structure of a flower can exist in many

beautiful variations.

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 Flowers, Fruits, and the Angiosperm Life Cycle

• Fruit
• is a ripened ovary,
• helps protect the seed,
• increases seed dispersal, and
• is a major food source for animals.

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 Fungi

• Fungi
• recycle vital chemical elements back to the
environment in forms other organisms can
assimilate and
• form mycorrhizae, fungus-root associations that
help plants absorb mineral and water from the soil.

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 Fungi

• Fungi are eukaryotes.

• Most are multicellular, but many have body
structures and modes of reproduction unlike
those of any other organism.

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Figure 16.22

Bud

Colorized SEM
A “fairy ring” Budding yeast

Colorized SEM
Bracket fungi

Mold

Corn smut
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 Fungi

• Fungi
• include mushrooms, mold, and yeast and
• represent more than 100,000 species.

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 Fungal Nutrition

• Fungi
• are heterotrophs and
• acquire their nutrients by absorption.

• A fungus digests food outside its body by secreting

powerful digestive enzymes into the food that
decompose complex molecules to simpler
compounds that the fungus can absorb.

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Figure 16.23

Reproductive
structure

Hyphae Spore-producing
structures

Mycelium

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 Fungal Reproduction

• Mushrooms arise from an underground mycelium

and mainly function in reproduction.
• A mushroom pops up above ground to disperse
its spores on air currents.

• Fungi typically reproduce by releasing haploid

spores that are produced either
• sexually or
• asexually.

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 Fungi as Decomposers

• Molds can destroy

• food,
• wood, and
• human-made materials.

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 Parasitic Fungi

• Parasitic fungi absorb nutrients from the cells or

body fluids of living hosts.

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 Parasitic Fungi

• Of the 100,000 known species of fungi, about 30%

make their living as parasites, including
• rye, wheat, and oats and
• American chestnut and American elm trees.

• About 500 species of fungi are known to be

parasitic in humans and other animals, causing
• lung and vaginal yeast infections and
• athlete’s foot.

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Figure 16.24

Ergots

(a) An American elm tree killed by Dutch elm

disease fungus (b) Ergots on rye
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 Commercial Uses of Fungi

• Fungi are commercially important. Humans use

them to
• produce antibiotics,
• decompose wastes, and
• produce bread, beer, wine, and cheeses.

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Figure 16.27

Penicillium Zone of inhibited growth

Staphylococcus

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