Reproductive Morphology
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Thuja Plicata Has Many Traditional Uses, from the Manufacture of Rope to Waterproof Hats, Nappies and Other Kinds of Clothing
photograph © Daniel Mosquin Culturally modified tree. The bark of Thuja plicata has many traditional uses, from the manufacture of rope to waterproof hats, nappies and other kinds of clothing. Careful, modest, bark stripping has little effect on the health or longevity of trees. (see pages 24 to 35) photograph © Douglas Justice 24 Tree of the Year : Thuja plicata Donn ex D. Don In this year’s Tree of the Year article DOUGLAS JUSTICE writes an account of the western red-cedar or giant arborvitae (tree of life), a species of conifers that, for centuries has been central to the lives of people of the Northwest Coast of America. “In a small clearing in the forest, a young woman is in labour. Two women companions urge her to pull hard on the cedar bark rope tied to a nearby tree. The baby, born onto a newly made cedar bark mat, cries its arrival into the Northwest Coast world. Its cradle of firmly woven cedar root, with a mattress and covering of soft-shredded cedar bark, is ready. The young woman’s husband and his uncle are on the sea in a canoe carved from a single red-cedar log and are using paddles made from knot-free yellow cedar. When they reach the fishing ground that belongs to their family, the men set out a net of cedar bark twine weighted along one edge by stones lashed to it with strong, flexible cedar withes. Cedar wood floats support the net’s upper edge. Wearing a cedar bark hat, cape and skirt to protect her from the rain and INTERNATIONAL DENDROLOGY SOCIETY TREES Opposite, A grove of 80- to 100-year-old Thuja plicata in Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver. -
Gymnosperms the MESOZOIC: ERA of GYMNOSPERM DOMINANCE
Chapter 24 Gymnosperms THE MESOZOIC: ERA OF GYMNOSPERM DOMINANCE THE VASCULAR SYSTEM OF GYMNOSPERMS CYCADS GINKGO CONIFERS Pinaceae Include the Pines, Firs, and Spruces Cupressaceae Include the Junipers, Cypresses, and Redwoods Taxaceae Include the Yews, but Plum Yews Belong to Cephalotaxaceae Podocarpaceae and Araucariaceae Are Largely Southern Hemisphere Conifers THE LIFE CYCLE OF PINUS, A REPRESENTATIVE GYMNOSPERM Pollen and Ovules Are Produced in Different Kinds of Structures Pollination Replaces the Need for Free Water Fertilization Leads to Seed Formation GNETOPHYTES GYMNOSPERMS: SEEDS, POLLEN, AND WOOD THE ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF GYMNOSPERMS The Origin of Seeds, Pollen, and Wood Seeds and Pollen Are Key Reproductive SUMMARY Innovations for Life on Land Seed Plants Have Distinctive Vegetative PLANTS, PEOPLE, AND THE Features ENVIRONMENT: The California Coast Relationships among Gymnosperms Redwood Forest 1 KEY CONCEPTS 1. The evolution of seeds, pollen, and wood freed plants from the need for water during reproduction, allowed for more effective dispersal of sperm, increased parental investment in the next generation and allowed for greater size and strength. 2. Seed plants originated in the Devonian period from a group called the progymnosperms, which possessed wood and heterospory, but reproduced by releasing spores. Currently, five lineages of seed plants survive--the flowering plants plus four groups of gymnosperms: cycads, Ginkgo, conifers, and gnetophytes. Conifers are the best known and most economically important group, including pines, firs, spruces, hemlocks, redwoods, cedars, cypress, yews, and several Southern Hemisphere genera. 3. The pine life cycle is heterosporous. Pollen strobili are small and seasonal. Each sporophyll has two microsporangia, in which microspores are formed and divide into immature male gametophytes while still retained in the microsporangia. -
California's Native Ferns
CALIFORNIA’S NATIVE FERNS A survey of our most common ferns and fern relatives Native ferns come in many sizes and live in many habitats • Besides living in shady woodlands and forests, ferns occur in ponds, by streams, in vernal pools, in rock outcrops, and even in desert mountains • Ferns are identified by producing fiddleheads, the new coiled up fronds, in spring, and • Spring from underground stems called rhizomes, and • Produce spores on the backside of fronds in spore sacs, arranged in clusters called sori (singular sorus) Although ferns belong to families just like other plants, the families are often difficult to identify • Families include the brake-fern family (Pteridaceae), the polypody family (Polypodiaceae), the wood fern family (Dryopteridaceae), the blechnum fern family (Blechnaceae), and several others • We’ll study ferns according to their habitat, starting with species that live in shaded places, then moving on to rock ferns, and finally water ferns Ferns from moist shade such as redwood forests are sometimes evergreen, but also often winter dormant. Here you see the evergreen sword fern Polystichum munitum Note that sword fern has once-divided fronds. Other features include swordlike pinnae and round sori Sword fern forms a handsome coarse ground cover under redwoods and other coastal conifers A sword fern relative, Dudley’s shield fern (Polystichum dudleyi) differs by having twice-divided pinnae. Details of the sori are similar to sword fern Deer fern, Blechnum spicant, is a smaller fern than sword fern, living in constantly moist habitats Deer fern is identified by having separate and different looking sterile fronds and fertile fronds as seen in the previous image. -
Ap09 Biology Form B Q2
AP® BIOLOGY 2009 SCORING GUIDELINES (Form B) Question 2 Discuss the patterns of sexual reproduction in plants. Compare and contrast reproduction in nonvascular plants with that in flowering plants. Include the following topics in your discussion: (a) alternation of generations (b) mechanisms that bring female and male gametes together (c) mechanisms that disperse offspring to new locations Four points per part. Student must write about all three parts for full credit. Within each part it is possible to get points for comparing and contrasting. Also, specific points are available from details provided about nonvascular and flowering plants. Discuss the patterns of sexual reproduction in plants (4 points maximum): (a) Alternation of generations (4 points maximum): Topic Description (1 point each) Alternating generations Haploid stage and diploid stage. Gametophyte Haploid-producing gametes. Dominant in nonvascular plants. Double fertilization in flowering plants. Gametangia; archegonia and antheridia in nonvascular plants. Sporophyte Diploid-producing spores. Heterosporous in flowering plants. Flowering plants produce seeds; nonvascular plants do not. Flowering plants produce flower structures. Sporangia (megasporangia and microsporangia). Dominant in flowering plants. (b) Mechanisms that bring female and male gametes together (4 points maximum): Nonvascular Plants (1 point each) Flowering Plants (1 point each) Aquatic—requires water for motile sperm Terrestrial—pollination by wind, water, or animal Micropyle in ovule for pollen tube to enter Pollen tube to carry sperm nuclei Self- or cross-pollination Antheridia produce sperm Gametophytes; no antheridia or archegonia Archegonia produce egg Ovules produce female gametophytes/gametes Pollen: male gametophyte that produces gametes © 2009 The College Board. All rights reserved. Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.com. -
Conifer Reproductive Biology Claire G
Conifer Reproductive Biology Claire G. Williams Conifer Reproductive Biology Claire G. Williams USA ISBN: 978-1-4020-9601-3 e-ISBN: 978-1-4020-9602-0 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9602-0 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009927085 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Cover Image: Snow and pendant cones on spruce tree (reproduced with permission of Photos.com). Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Foreword When it comes to reproduction, gymnosperms are deeply weird. Cycads and coni- fers have drawn out reproduction: at least 13 genera take over a year from pollina- tion to fertilization. Since they don’t apparently have any selection mechanism by which to discriminate among pollen tubes prior to fertilization, it is natural to won- der why such a delay in reproduction is necessary. Claire Williams’ book celebrates such oddities of conifer reproduction. She has written a book that turns the context of many of these reproductive quirks into deeper questions concerning evolution. The origins of some of these questions can be traced back Wilhelm Hofmeister’s 1851 book, which detailed the revolutionary idea of alternation of generations. -
Information and Care Instructions Mother Fern
Information and Care Instructions Mother Fern Quick Reference Botanical Name - Asplenium bulbiferum Detailed Care Exposure - Shade to bright, indirect Your Mother Fern was grown in a plastic pot. Depending on the item, it may then have been Indoor Placement - Bright location but not in direct afternoon sun transplanted into a decorative pot before sale or simply “dropped” into a container while still in the USDA Hardiness - Zone 10a to 11 plastic pot. Inside Temperature - 50-70˚F WATERING Min Outside Temperature - 30˚F 1. Let the top of the soil dry out slightly before Plant Type - Evergreen Fern watering; check frequently, especially if kept in a hot, dry spot. Mother Ferns like to be kept evenly moist, Watering - Allow soil to dry out slightly before watering. Do not allow but not soggy. the pot to sit in standing water for more than a few minutes 2. When watering, use the recommended amount of water for your pot size (See Quick Reference Guide) Water Amount Used - 4” Pot = 1/3 cup of water poured directly on the soil. In order not to damage 6 1/2” Pot = 1 1/4 cups of water your furniture, countertop or floor, place your Mother Fertilizing - Fertilize monthly Fern in a saucer, bowl or sink when watering. Allow the water to drain for 5 minutes. Do not allow the soil to sit in water for any more than 5 minutes or damage to the roots may occur. Avoid continuous use of softened water as the sodium in it can build up to damaging levels in the soil. -
Cupressaceae Calocedrus Decurrens Incense Cedar
Cupressaceae Calocedrus decurrens incense cedar Sight ID characteristics • scale leaves lustrous, decurrent, much longer than wide • laterals nearly enclosing facials • seed cone with 3 pairs of scale/bract and one central 11 NOTES AND SKETCHES 12 Cupressaceae Chamaecyparis lawsoniana Port Orford cedar Sight ID characteristics • scale leaves with glaucous bloom • tips of laterals on older stems diverging from branch (not always too obvious) • prominent white “x” pattern on underside of branchlets • globose seed cones with 6-8 peltate cone scales – no boss on apophysis 13 NOTES AND SKETCHES 14 Cupressaceae Chamaecyparis thyoides Atlantic white cedar Sight ID characteristics • branchlets slender, irregularly arranged (not in flattened sprays). • scale leaves blue-green with white margins, glandular on back • laterals with pointed, spreading tips, facials closely appressed • bark fibrous, ash-gray • globose seed cones 1/4, 4-5 scales, apophysis armed with central boss, blue/purple and glaucous when young, maturing in fall to red-brown 15 NOTES AND SKETCHES 16 Cupressaceae Callitropsis nootkatensis Alaska yellow cedar Sight ID characteristics • branchlets very droopy • scale leaves more or less glabrous – little glaucescence • globose seed cones with 6-8 peltate cone scales – prominent boss on apophysis • tips of laterals tightly appressed to stem (mostly) – even on older foliage (not always the best character!) 15 NOTES AND SKETCHES 16 Cupressaceae Taxodium distichum bald cypress Sight ID characteristics • buttressed trunks and knees • leaves -
Ferns of the National Forests in Alaska
Ferns of the National Forests in Alaska United States Forest Service R10-RG-182 Department of Alaska Region June 2010 Agriculture Ferns abound in Alaska’s two national forests, the Chugach and the Tongass, which are situated on the southcentral and southeastern coast respectively. These forests contain myriad habitats where ferns thrive. Most showy are the ferns occupying the forest floor of temperate rainforest habitats. However, ferns grow in nearly all non-forested habitats such as beach meadows, wet meadows, alpine meadows, high alpine, and talus slopes. The cool, wet climate highly influenced by the Pacific Ocean creates ideal growing conditions for ferns. In the past, ferns had been loosely grouped with other spore-bearing vascular plants, often called “fern allies.” Recent genetic studies reveal surprises about the relationships among ferns and fern allies. First, ferns appear to be closely related to horsetails; in fact these plants are now grouped as ferns. Second, plants commonly called fern allies (club-mosses, spike-mosses and quillworts) are not at all related to the ferns. General relationships among members of the plant kingdom are shown in the diagram below. Ferns & Horsetails Flowering Plants Conifers Club-mosses, Spike-mosses & Quillworts Mosses & Liverworts Thirty of the fifty-four ferns and horsetails known to grow in Alaska’s national forests are described and pictured in this brochure. They are arranged in the same order as listed in the fern checklist presented on pages 26 and 27. 2 Midrib Blade Pinnule(s) Frond (leaf) Pinna Petiole (leaf stalk) Parts of a fern frond, northern wood fern (p. -
7. PSEUDOLARIX Gordon, Pinetum 292. 1858, Nom. Cons. 金钱松属 Jin Qian Song Shu Chrysolarix H
Flora of China 4: 41–42. 1999. 7. PSEUDOLARIX Gordon, Pinetum 292. 1858, nom. cons. 金钱松属 jin qian song shu Chrysolarix H. E. Moore; Laricopsis Kent. Trees deciduous; trunk monopodial, straight, terete; branches irregularly whorled; branchlets strongly dimorphic: long branchlets with leaves spirally arranged and radially spreading; short branchlets with leaves radially arranged in false whorls of 10–30 (often spirally spread like a discoid star). Leaves green, turning golden yellow before falling in autumn, narrowly oblanceolate-linear, flattened, 1.5–4 mm wide, flexible, stomatal lines abaxial, in 2 bands, separated by midvein, vascular bundle 1, resin canals 2 or 3 (–7), marginal. Pollen cones terminal on short branchlets, borne in umbellate clusters of 10–25, pendulous at maturity; pollen 2-saccate. Seed cones solitary, shortly pedunculate, erect or ± spreading, ovoid-globose, 2-seeded, maturing in 1st year. Seed scales thick, woody, deciduous at maturity. Bracts adnate to seed scales at base and shed together with them at maturity. Seeds with large, backward projecting wing extending beyond scale margin at maturity. Cotyledons 4–7. 2n = 44*. • One species: China. 1. Pseudolarix amabilis (J. Nelson) Rehder, J. Arnold Arbor. 1: 53. 1919. 金钱松 jin qian song Larix amabilis J. Nelson, Pinaceae 84. 1866; Abies kaempferi Lindley; Chrysolarix amabilis (J. Nelson) H. E. Moore; Laricopsis kaempferi (Lindley) Kent; Pseudolarix fortunei Mayr; P. kaempferi Gordon; P. pourtetii Ferré. Trees to 40 m tall; trunk to 3 m d.b.h.; bark gray-brown, rough, scaly, flaking; crown broadly conical; long branchlets initially reddish brown or reddish yellow, glossy, glabrous, becoming yellowish gray, brownish gray, or rarely purplish brown in 2nd or 3rd year, finally gray or dark gray; short branchlets slow growing, bearing dense rings of leaf cushions; winter buds ovoid, scales free at apex. -
Plant Classification
Plant Classification Vascular plants are a group that has a system Non-Vascular plants are low growing plants of tubes (roots, stems and leaves) to help that get materials directly from their them transport materials throughout the surroundings. They have small root-like plant. Tubes called xylem move water from structures called rhizoids which help them the roots to the stems and leaves. Tubes adhere to their substrate. They undergo called phloem move food from the leaves asexual reproduction through vegetative (where sugar is made during propagation and sexual reproduction using photosynthesis) to the rest of the plant’s spores. Examples include bryophytes like cells. Vascular plants reproduce asexually hornworts, liverworts, and mosses. through spores and vegetative propagation (small part of the plant breaks off and forms a new plant) and sexually through pollen (sperm) and ovules (eggs). A gymnosperm is a vascular plant whose An angiosperm is a vascular plant whose seeds are not enclosed in an ovule or fruit. mature seeds are enclosed in a fruit or The name means “naked seed” and the ovule. They are flowering plants that group typically refers to conifers that bear reproduce using seeds and are either male and female cones, have needle-like “perfect” and contain both male and female leaves and are evergreen (leaves stay green reproductive structures or “imperfect” and year round and do not drop their leaves contain only male or female structures. during the fall and winter. Examples include Angiosperm trees are also called hardwoods pine trees, ginkgos and cycads. and they have broad leaves that change color and drop during the fall and winter. -
Cell Wall Loosening by Expansins1
Plant Physiol. (1998) 118: 333–339 Update on Cell Growth Cell Wall Loosening by Expansins1 Daniel J. Cosgrove* Department of Biology, 208 Mueller Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 In his 1881 book, The Power of Movement in Plants, Darwin alter the bonding relationships of the wall polymers. The described a now classic experiment in which he directed a growing wall is a composite polymeric structure: a thin tiny shaft of sunlight onto the tip of a grass seedling. The weave of tough cellulose microfibrils coated with hetero- region below the coleoptile tip subsequently curved to- glycans (hemicelluloses such as xyloglucan) and embedded ward the light, leading to the notion of a transmissible in a dense, hydrated matrix of various neutral and acidic growth stimulus emanating from the tip. Two generations polysaccharides and structural proteins (Bacic et al., 1988; later, follow-up work by the Dutch plant physiologist Fritz Carpita and Gibeaut, 1993). Like other polymer compos- Went and others led to the discovery of auxin. In the next ites, the plant cell wall has rheological (flow) properties decade, another Dutchman, A.J.N. Heyn, found that grow- intermediate between those of an elastic solid and a viscous ing cells responded to auxin by making their cell walls liquid. These properties have been described using many more “plastic,” that is, more extensible. This auxin effect different terms: plasticity, viscoelasticity, yield properties, was partly explained in the early 1970s by the discovery of and extensibility are among the most common. It may be “acid growth”: Plant cells grow faster and their walls be- attractive to think that wall stress relaxation and expansion come more extensible at acidic pH. -
Attractant, Acting As a Homing Device for the Swimming Sperm. Sperm
r 62 CHAPTER 3 EVOLUTION AND DIVERSITY OF GREEN AND LAND PLANTS UN[T 11 EVOLUTION AND DIVERSITY OF PLANTS 63 gemmae propagules 2 rows of 1 row of sperm cells dorsal leaves ventral leaves (sterile “jacket” layer) neck sperm cells “ ‘fl gemmae cup I / pore dorsal (upper) ventral (lower) A B view view thalloid liverwort leafy liverwort FIGURE 3.10 A. Antheridia. B. Archegonia. Both are apomorphies of land plants. 4 (,, ••1• attractant, acting as a homing device for the swimming sperm. of the liverworts, mosses, and hornworts is relatively small, Sperm cells enter the neck of the archegonium and fertilize ephemeral, and attached to and nutritionally dependent upon the egg cell to form a diploid (2n) zygote. In addition to the gametophyte (see later discussion). effecting fertilization, the archegonium serves as a site for The relationships of the liverworts, mosses, and hornworts embryo/sporophyte development and the establishment of a to one another and to the vascular plants remain unclear. nutritional dependence of the sporophyte upon gametophytic Many different relationships among the three lineages have archegonium tissue. been proposed, one recent of which is seen in Figure 3.6. (n) The land plants share other possible apomorphies: the presence of various ultrastructural modifications of the sperm LIVERWORTS cells, fiavonoid chemical compounds, and a proliferation of Liverworts, also traditionally called the Hepaticae, are one of archegoniophore (n) archegoniophore (n) (longitudinal-section) heat shock proteins. These are not discussed here. the monophyletic groups that are descendents of some of the (longitudinal-section) first land plants. Today, liverworts are relatively minor com ponents of the land plant flora, growing mostly in moist, fertilization DIVERSITY OF NONVASCULAR LAND PLANTS shaded areas (although some are adapted to periodically dry, hot habitats).