Plant Diversity
C9L1
Botany: the study of plants
What is a plant?
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Living organisms which are
eukaryotic and multicellular
Have organized tissues
Have plastids (such as chloroplasts convert light energy to chemical
energy)
Have cell walls containing cellulose provides support and protection
Characteristics of Plants (cont.)
A mature plant cell
has one or two
vacuoles that store
a watery liquid
called sap.
Characteristics of Plants (cont.)
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Some plants are
microscopic, while others
are some of the largest
organisms on Earth.
Characteristics of Plants (cont.)
Plants are producers—organisms that use an
outside energy source, such as the Sun, to
make their own food.
producer
from Latin producer, means “lead or bring forth,
draw out”
Characteristics of Plants (cont.)
Plants make their own food, a simple sugar
called glucose, during a process called
photosynthesis.
One reason the study of botany
is so important to man is …
Because all the food eaten by man
comes directly or indirectly from
green plants. About 2/3 of the food
we eat comes directly from plants
and 1/3 comes from animals which
eat plants.
Ways Plants are Beneficial:
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Provide most of man's food
Release O2 needed by man and
animals
Plants are raw materials for
many manufactured goods
Plants are a source of beauty
Misconceptions:
All green things are plants.
 All plants
are green.
 All plants
are
autotrophic.
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Plant Adaptations and Creation
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Evolutionists hypothesize that present-day
land plants and green algae evolved from a
common ancestor.
The first land plants probably lived in moist
areas.
As land plants became more abundant, the
amount of oxygen in the atmosphere
increased because oxygen is a product of
photosynthesis.
Plant Adaptations and Creation
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Evolutionists explain adaptation as the
process where organisms become better
suited for their environment or in other
words if an organism lives in a cold
environment they may grow fur or a thick
layer of blubber to combat the cooler
temperatures. Therefore, from this view the
organisms that are better able to survive in a
specific environment will have offspring
better able to survive in that environment
Plant Adaptations and Creation
and those that are not as well adapted to that
environment will have offspring that will be
out competed or selected against leaving
less of their genes in the next generation.
This view explains that each proceeding
generation is bigger and better and will
eventually evolve and take the place of the
less suitable organisms. Those that did not
develop these characteristics would freeze
to death.
Plant Adaptations and Creation
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From a purely scientific standpoint,
adaptations are features that suit an
organism or species for its niche and
habitat. However, from a creationist’s
viewpoint we see adaptation as the natural
God given variation that was designed by
him to allow organisms to function
effectively in a differing array of
environments. This means that the creature
was designed with plan and purpose to
Plant Adaptations and Creation
function within the given environment.
Creatures that live in cold environments
have fur and blubber because that was part
of God’s plan. From the Biblical view, all
organisms were created with the genetic
variability, to produce all the diversity seen
within created kinds. Post-Flood events that
isolated these creatures in a given
environment caused specific traits to be
more prominent due to death of creatures
Plant Adaptations and Creation
lacking the God given characteristics to live
in that environment. This is the very reason
why we see creatures all over the world that
are similar, but live in different niches of a
given habitat.
Plant Diversities/Variations
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Many plants have a waxy, protective layer
on their leaves, stems, and flowers called
the cuticle.
The cuticle slows the evaporation of water
from a plant’s surface and provides some
protection from insects.
Plant Diversities/Variations (cont.)
A rigid cell wall
made of cellulose
surrounds the cell
membrane in a
plant cell.
Plant Diversities/Variations (cont.)
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Cellulose is an organic
compound made of chains of
glucose molecules.
Many land plants also produce a
chemical compound called
lignin which strengthens
cellulose and makes it more
rigid.
Plant Diversities/Variations (cont.)
In some plants such as mosses, water and
nutrients can move from cell to cell by the
processes of osmosis and diffusion.
Plant Diversities/Variations (cont.)
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Other plants such as grasses and trees have
specialized tissues called vascular tissue.
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Vascular
tissue is
composed of
tubelike cells
that transport
water and
nutrients in
some plants.
Brand X Pictures/PunchStock
Plant Diversities/Variations (cont.)
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Water carries the reproductive cells of
aquatic plants from plant to plant.
Some plants have water-resistant seeds or
spores that are part of their reproductive
process.
Seeds and spores move through
environments in different ways, including
animals and environmental factors such as
wind and water.
Plant Classification
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imagebroker/Alamy
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Members of the plant
kingdom are organized
into groups called
divisions.
Like all organisms, each
plant has a
two-word scientific
name.
Sugar Maple
Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)
Acer saccharum
Plant Classification
One of the traits used in
classifying plants is the
presence or absence of
vascular tissue. Xylem and
phloem are the most familiar,
but there are others.
Vascular plants: plants that have
vascular tissue.
Nonvascular plants: plants that do
not have vascular tissue.
Do you think that plants without
vascular tissues are tall or short?
Why?
Another important trait used to
classify plants is whether they
produce seeds.
Nonvascular plants – seedless and
reproduce by producing gametes in one
stage of their life cycle and spores.
Vascular plants – some reproduce by
gametes and spores & others by
Seedless
plants do not
gametes and seeds.
have flowers.
Plant Classification (cont.)
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Some seed plants have flowers that produce
fruit with one or more seeds, but others,
such as pine trees, produce their seeds in
cones.
The 3 Major categories
of plants
Plant Divisions
Non-vasuclar
Moss
Liverworts
hornworts
Vascular without Seeds
ferns
wiskferns
ground pine
Vascular with Seeds
conifers
monocots
dicots