Plant Diversity

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
2022/2023
BIO112: PLANT DIVERSITY
 Course Lecturers

 Ms I Randome, 235/225

 Prof. M.P. Setshogo, 235/241

BIO112: PLANT DIVERSITY
 Tests and Final Exams:
 One CA Test –Plant Diversity only
 Includes lecture material and laboratory work

 Date for Plant Diversity CA Test 2:

 Sunday 23rd April 2023, Online
 All other information about the course is contained
in BIO112 Course Manual. Read it!!!
 BIO112: PLANT DIVERSITY
• BIO 112 - Survey of the Plant Kingdom/land plants
• Evolutionary approach

• Start with simple plants to complex flowering

plants.

• From aquatic environments to land (terrestrial).

• Highlight features that have enabled plants to

survive and be successful on land.
A.Why study plants?
 They are important to life on earth!
 LIFE depends on photosynthesis
◦ only plants ( and algae, bacteria?? )
can perform photosynthesis
 1. Plants as food- directly or indirectly
 Base of the food chain
 Throughout history, 7000 plant types

used as food
 Major food crops- maize, beans,

sorghum, rice, wheat etc

Why plants?
 Provide nutrients:
 carbohydrate, protein, lipid (fat), water,

vitamins, and minerals

 Hence the availability of the following:
 Spices, flavouring – vanilla, ginger, mint
 Beverages- beer, tea, coffee
 Sugar- sugar cane
 Oils-unsaturated fatty acids
 Food for animals- feed
Why plants?
 2. Source of oxygen
 3. Remove carbon dioxide-reduce greenhouse
effect
 4. Regulate water cycle- Move water from soil to
atmosphere
 5. Aesthetic uses-as ornamentals, landscaping
 6. Source of natural products
 Fibers- cotton, hemp, (Cannabis sativa), also called
industrial hemp (plant of the family Cannabaceae
cultivated for its fibre (bast fibre) or its edible
seeds), linen
Why plants?
 7. Habitat to other organisms
 8. Ecosystem services eg:
◦ Soil erosion control
◦ modify temperatures
◦ Nitrogen fixation
 9. Religious/spiritual services
 10. Source of medicine
 11. Plants can also be poisonous!
◦ Datura sp., Nerium oliander
B. What is a plant?
 Multicellular, photosynthetic, eukaryote

 Produce sugars from carbon dioxide in presence

of light and gives off oxygen

 Cannot move; respond to environment differently

from animals or their movement is quite different
from that of animals.

 Cells surrounded by a rigid cell wall

 Embryo is protected

 Unique ways of development and regeneration

C. How are plants classified?
• Several systems used by botanists
• This course will follow Sadava et al. 2011
• Kingdom Plantae divided into 2 major
categories:

• Vascular Plants (Tracheophytes) - plants with

conducting cells called tracheids

• Non-Vascular Plants (Non-Tracheophytes) –

plants without a conducting system, tracheids

• Sadava et al. recognizes 10 groups (clades)

 Classification..
GROUP COMMON NAME
1) NON VASCULAR PLANTS
 Hepatophyta(division/phylum) Liverworts
 Anthocerophyta (division/phylum) Hornworts
 Bryophyta (division/phylum) Mosses

 2) VASCULAR PLANTS
 (a) seedless tracheophytes

 Lycopodiophyta (division/phylum) Club mosses

 Pteridophyta(division/phylum) Ferns& fern allies
(Monilophyta)
 Classification…

Group COMMON NAME

• (b) Seed tracheophytes
• (Spermatophyta) 
• (i) Gymnosperms
• Cycadophyta Cycads
• Ginkgophyta Ginkgo
• Gnetophyta Gnetophytes
• Coniferophyta Conifers

• (ii) Angiosperms Flowering plants

Plant Kingdom
• In this course, we will also discuss
organisms called Algae
• Many botanists include Algae in the Plant
Kingdom
• Sadava et al. does include algae in ‘Green
Plants’
• Algae have many characteristic features that
fit in the definition of a plant

• However the course will concentrate on land

plants
 Why consider/talk about algae in this
course?
• The purpose of course is:
• to survey the Plant Kingdom
• to understand their origin
• and how they have evolved through time

• We can only understand this by studying

plant-like organisms that came before
them- The Algae
 Why algae?
 Algae have played a big role in
shaping the earth
 Examples:
 1) Algae have been part of the story
of the evolution of the eukaryotic
cell-
 Endosymbiont theory ?
blue-green algae have played part
(in origin of chloroplasts-
photosynthetic machinery)
Why algae?
 2) Algae (blue-greens) have been
instrumental in creating an oxygen –
filled atmosphere :
 First true photosynthetic organisms
 Produced oxygen, which later
accumulated in the atmosphere
 Enabled the evolution of aerobic
organisms- The Cambrian Explosion!!
Why algae?
 3) Algae (green algae) are thought to
be ancestors of plants! (see next
lecture)****

 Can better understand plants if we

look at their ancestors