Exam (elaborations) BIOLOGY 1307 Lab Assignment #6 - Seedless Nonvascular Plants

Bio. 2 Lab Manual: Part 2 – Plants Introduction to Plants The purpose of this lab unit is to introduce students to the fundamental components of plant evolution. Students will begin with the most primitive land plants – seedless non-vascular plants – and work their way up to the most advanced and dominant form of plant life on Earth – the angiosperms. Over the next couple of labs, you will study the various plant groups with special emphasis on life cycle and evolutionary characters distinct to each group. Below is a simplified tree showing the evolution of plants from the simplest plants – liverworts to the most advanced plants – angiosperms. Figure 1 – A Plant Cladogram Plants are multicellular eukaryotes able to live and thrive on land; they belong to Domain Eukarya, Supergroup Archaeplastida and Kingdom Plantae. Land plants evolved some 450 million years ago from green algal ancestors belonging to class Charophyceae. In order to survive and flourish on land, plants exhibit the following characteristic - Waxy cuticle to prevent water loss - Vascular tissue to support and transport nutrients and water - Presence of apical meristems