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Surveying Plant Diversity

Introduction: Most plants are complex photosynthetic organisms that live on land. The ancestors of
plants lived in water. As plants evolved on land, they developed adaptations that made it possible for
them to be successful in dry conditions. In this lab you will explore the various characteristics of the four
most familiar plant phyla.

NONVASCULAR PLANTS – Mosses, Liverworts and Hornworts

1. What is a nonvascular plant? How is it different from a vascular plant?

2. Are nonvascular plants usually small or big? Simple or complex?

3. How is this moss different from grass?

4. Moss cannot grow everywhere, and is usually found in shaded damp forests. Why?

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SEEDLESS VASCULAR PLANTS – Ferns, horsetails and whisk ferns

6. Why are seedless vascular plants larger than nonvascular plants?

7. Ferns do not have seeds, so how do they produce?

GYMNOSPERMS- Conifers(pine trees), Cycads,Ginkgo, Gnetophytes

8. What does gymnosperm mean?

9. How are gymnosperms different from seedless vascular plants?

10. In which part of a conifer would you look to find its reproductive structures (seeds)?

ANGIOSPERMS- Flowering Plants

11. What is an angiosperm? How is it different from a gymnosperm?

12. Angiosperms are the most successful of the plants because they can grown almost anywhere.
Name two reasons angiosperms are so successful.

13. Where do angiosperms produce the sperm and the egg?

14. Where do some angiosperms keep their seeds (hint: animals will eat this and disperse the seeds
when they poop)?