Organismal Biology Section Three Exam

Organismal Biology 1030 A & B, Section Three Make-Up Exam, Spring 2010

Name: ______Section number: ______

1. Explain what physiology, in its broad sense, is. (2 pts)

2. What is the ‘great chain’ of biological complexity? (2 pts)

3. What are phytoplankton and why are they so important? (4 pts)

4. What are the main vegetative parts of a plant? (2 pts)

5. What are the functions of the root of a plant? (2 pts)

6. What is a petiole? (1 pts)

7. Differentiate between a taproot and fibrous root system. (2 pts)

1 8. Differentiate between stolons and rhizomes. (2 pts)

9. What is a tendril? (1 pts)

10. Differentiate between a fruit and a vegetable, biologically speaking. (2 pts)

11. Differentiate between plant determinate and indeterminate growth. (2 pts)

12. What is meristem? (1 pts)

13. Differentiate between xylem and phloem — what do they do; what are their main cell types? (5 pts)

14. What is the primary organ of photosynthesis in most plants? (1 pts)

15. What nutrient do most carnivorous plants use their prey as a primary source of? (1 pts)

16. What are the three nutrients that are often limiting for plant growth and are therefore always in fertilizers? (3 pts)

2 17. How do plants get the carbon they need; what about the nitrogen they need — where does each come from? (4 pts)

18. Tell me about nitrogen fixation — what is it, what can do it, what is involved? (5 pts)

19. What is turgor? (1 pts)

20. Differentiate between adhesion and cohesion as it relates to water. (2 pts)

21. What are plasmodesmata — why do plants have them, what are they used for? (2 pts)

22. What are stomata — why do plants have them, what are they used for, how are they regulated? (2 pts)

23. What is an herbarium? (2 pts)

3 24. What are the key angiosperm adaptations that contribute to angiosperms’ widespread distribution about the earth? (4 pts)

25. What are the main advantages of sexual reproduction in all organisms? (2 pts)

26. Differentiate between the “alternation of generations” in ‘higher’ plants and ‘lower’ plants. (4 pts)

27. Tell me about each of the whorls that make up a flower — how many are there and what are their parts? (4 pts)

28. What organ of a flower produces pollen? (1 pts)

29. What organ of a flower receives pollen? (1 pts)

4 30. What do floral haploid microspores (male) produce? (1 pts)

31. What do floral haploid megaspores (female) produce? (1 pts)

32. What is the function of the endosperm and/or cotyledon? (1 pts)

33. What are the multiple functions of fruits? (4 pts)

34. What is the plant hormone linked to the saying "one bad apple spoils the bushel" and that ripens fruit? (1 pts)

35. Which plant hormone slows down growth and seed germination, and causes leaf abscission? (1 pts)

36. What do auxins promote? (1 pts)

37. What do cytokinins promote? (1 pts)

38. What do gibberellins promote? (1 pts)

5 39. What are plant phytochromes, and what do the do for plants? (2 pts)

40. Differentiate between gravitropism and thigmotropism. (2 pts)

41. What is plant senescence? (1 pts)

42. According to the Botany of Desire, what was the primary reason the apple was spread across the US Western Territory? (4 pts)

43. Why are agricultural monocultures a very bad idea, in spite of its widespread and prevalent practice? (4 pts)

44. Why, according to the Botany of Desire, has Cannabis been extensively bred and distributed about the world? (4 pts)

45. Tell me about Cannabis’ psychoactive component, THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and how it relates to endogenous vertebrate brain chemicals. (4 pts)