GENERAL SURVEY OF LOWER PLANTS

- Flowerless or seedless plants, also known as cryptogams

- Lower and more primitive plants i.e. Their plant bodies are not differentiated into stem and
leaves and lacks true roots and a vascular system.
- 3 main groups i.e. Thallophyte, Bryophyte and Pteridophyte
- Thallophytes include: Algae
- Bryophytes include liverworts, horned liverworts and mosses
- Pteridophytes include ferns and their allies
Reproduction
- Members may take one or more of 3 methods of reproduction including vegetative, asexual and
sexual - Vegetative by cell division or fragmentation
- Asexual reproduction is through production of various types of spores
- Sexual reproduction takes place by fusion of two gametes

ECOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF PLANTS TO DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS

An adaptation can be defined as a structural, physiological or behavioural characteristic that

enables a living organism to survive and reproduce in a given environment. Adaptations develop
over time and generations as a response to the ever-changing environment.  They allow an
organism to reduce competition for space and nutrients, reduce predation and increase
reproduction. 

Several adaptive groups of plants have been identified. They include:

a). Hydrophytes:

Also called water-loving plants, are plants that are naturally adapted to growing in water or
waterlogged soil. They may grow entirely or partly submerged, or floating on the water surface,
or with their roots anchored to the ground in swamps or beside bodies of water.
Features that adapt hydrophytes to their environment include:

 Lack of cuticles.
 Stomata are larger in quantity and typically open.
 Lots of Air sacs (Aerenchyma) for gaseous exchange and bouyancy.
 Mechanical tissues like collenchyma and sclerenchyma are poorly developed
 Thin leaves with poorly developed mesophyll
 Thin cell walls

Examples of hydrophytes include lowland rice (Oryza sativa), members of water hyacinth family
(e.g. Monochoria vaginalis), water lily (Nymphaea spp.), papyrus and umbrella plant (Cyperus
spp.), lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), and bakawan (Rhizophora mucronata) and other mangrove
species.

b). Xerophytes: 

These are plants adapted to regions with scant or no water and hot conditions. Their natural
habitats are the arid and semi-arid regions and those places with long summer drought.

Anatomical adaptations of xerophytes include:

 The presence of multiple palisade and spongy mesophyll layers

 Multiple epidermis
 Very thick cuticle to prevent water loss
 lots of stomata for maximum CO2 collection during photosynthesis
 Sunken stomata, with trichome overlays for reduced transpiration
 lots of sclerenchyma cells for support when water (and therefore turgor pressure) are low

Examples of xerophytes are the members of the Lamiaceae and Compositae, the olive (Olea),
and the succulents such as the cacti and those belonging to the genera Asparagus, Euphorbia,
Agave, Aloe, Crassula and Sansevieria. The pineapple and other bromeliads are also included
under this plant classification.
c). Sciophytes or sciophytic plants:

Also called shade-loving plants, are those plants with special ecological adaptation to reduced
light intensity or partial sun. Most of these plants are found naturally growing on the forest floor
and under the canopies of trees with thick foliage. Adaptations to achieve these strategic goals
include:

 Thinner leaves with a relatively higher chlorophyll content per unit leaf volume
 Lens-shaped epidermal cells that focus incoming light into and within the mesophyll
 A red abaxial cell layer that reflects outgoing light back into the mesophyll
 Poorly defined palisade layer
 Better developed sponge mesophyll
 Larger intercellular spaces
 Chloroplast are very few in number

Examples are most orchids, ferns and fern allies like whisk fern (Psilotum nudum), horsetail
(Equisetum spp.), clubmosses (Lycopodium spp.) and Silaginella spp.

Commercially grown crops associated with this plant classification include the black pepper
(Piper nigrum), cacao (Theobroma cacao), coffee (Coffea spp.), lanzones (Lansium
domesticum), mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana), soursop (Annona muricata), hot pepper
(Capsicum annuum) and ginger (Zingiber officinale). These crops can tolerate or require shade
and are therefore suitable for intercropping under coconut or other perennial crops having wide
canopies.

d). Heliophytes or heliophytic plants:

Also called sun-loving plants, are those that require for their optimum growth full exposure to
the sun. Examples are coconut, mango (Mangifera indica), sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum),
corn (Zea mays). This plant classification also applies to the xerophytic plants.

Anatomical adaptive features of heliophytes include:

  leaves are relatively thick and have a well-developed palisade layer with a high
proportion of columnar cells
 Poorly developed sponge mesophyll
 Smaller intercellular spaces compared to sciophytes
 Chloroplasts are larger in number

e). Halophytes or halophytic plants:

Also called salt loving plants, are plants that can tolerate growing under saline conditions or in
natural habitats which are excessively rich in salts. Included under the halophytic plant
classification are the nipa (Nypa fruticans), talisay (Terminalia catappa), bakawan (Rhizophora
mucronata) and many other mangrove species. Coconut (Cocos nucifera), cashew (Anacardium
occidentale), jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) and tamarind (Tamarindus indica) have
varying tolerance to salinity. The common table salt is in fact used as a fertilizer for coconut.

Anatomical adaptations of halophytic plants include:

 Veral mangroves (Rhizophora spp. and Sonneratia spp.) have salt glands that excrete
salts to the surface of the leaves.
 A well developed endodermis, evidenced in some species (Artemisia santonicum, Juncus
gerardi, Lactuca saligna, Salicornia europaea, Suaeda maritima, Bolboschoenus
maritimus), serves as a barrier that controls and limits the salt penetration in plant body.
 Water storage by a well-developed palisade tissue, in: Salicornia europaea, Suaeda
maritima, Petrosimonia oppositifolia, P. triandra and Spergularia media ensures the
erect position of plant and the potential dilution of toxic salts.
 Traheids occuring in succulent tissues of Salicornia are involved in plant water balance,
salt tolerance, mechanical support and water or air storage.
 Intense lignification which is provided by the activity of successive cambia can be
stimulated by salinity. Therefore, this could confer mechanical resistance of cells to high
osmotic pressure of soil solution.
  Halophyte species collected from wet habitats (Aster tripolium ssp. pannonicus, Juncus
grardi, Spergularia media) present aerenchyma, especially in underground organs
(rhizome, root), which serve as oxygen storage facilities.

f). Epiphytes or epiphytic plants:

Also called air plants and tree dwellers, are plants adapted to growing aboveground on another
plant but they are not parasitic. They usually need the host only for physical support, deriving
their nutritional requirements from the air and other sources.

Examples of common epiphytes are plants under the family Bromyliaceae including the
ornamental bromyliads, and many plants belonging to the orchid and fern families.

Anatomical adaptions of epiphytes include:

 They have aerial roots

 A typical aerial root of an epiphyte consists of a specialised outer epidermis of several
cell layers called the velamen, which serves for rapid uptake of water and nutrients
 As a first line of defence against lethal drying, xerophitic epiphytes possess stout- walled
epidermal cells covered by a thick evaporation-retarding cuticle.
 Mesophyll is commonly differentiated into hypodermis and chlorenchyma
 A largely achlorophyllous, multilayered, adaxial epidermis occupies up to 80% of total
leaf volume in some epiphytic peperomia.
 Much of the leaf interior assumes a water storage role
 In drought-enduring epiphytes, mesophyll is usually diffedrentiated into water storage
and chlorenchyma tissue
 An additional less conspicuous xeromorphic feature promoting water retention includes
recessed stomata.

g). Lithophytes or lithophytic plants:

Are plants with special adaptation to growing on rocks or in rocky terrain having scant humus.
They absorb nutrients from the air, rain, and decaying organic matter which accumulate on the
rocks. Examples are orchids belonging to the genera Vanda, Ascocenda, Ascocentrum, and
Trudelia. Most lithophytes are also epiphytes and share same anatomical adaptations as the later.

h). Metallophytes:

Are plants adapted to natural habitats with toxic levels of metals such as Ni, Co, Cr and Mn.
Examples of metal-tolerant plants are Myristica laurifolia, Shorea tenuiramulosa, Rinorea
bengalensis, Phyllanthus balgooyi, and Walsura monophylla.

Anatomical adaptations of metallophytes to their habitats include:

 Armeria maritima can thrive both in coastal salt marshes with a high NaCl content (ssp.
maritima) and on heavy metal heaps (ssp. halleri). This plant has special glands,
developed from stomata, which apparently serve to excrete excess NaCl. Similar glands
might also be used to transfer the surplus of heavy metals to the outside by the
metallophyte A. maritima ssp. halleri. However, this has not yet been verified.

 The Zn - and Cd-hyperaccumulator Thlaspi caerulescens has recently been shown to

possess a peri-endodermal layer of cells with irregularly thickened tangential cell walls
impregnated by lignin. This structure is lacking in the non-metallophyte Thlaspi arvense,
and could be involved in metal detoxification.