What are Plants?
Plants are many celled organisms that have cell walls and make their own food using the sun’s energy
(photosynthesis). Most plants live on land, and the resources they need are separated by the air and soil.
____________________________________ are in the air, and __________________________ are in the
soil.
-
Plants have _________ that access water and nutrients in the soil, and ___________________ that
collect light and gases from the air.
The roots and leaves are connected by _________________________.
Classification of Plants
___________________: have no vascular
tissue (mosses, bryophytes, liverworts)
_____________: have vascular tissue
No Seeds (ferns, club mosses)
____________________:
flowering plants
______________________: nonflowering
plants; conifers (pines, firs) – make cones
_____________: have 2 cotyledons, branched
veins, flowers in 4x or 5x, and taproots
_______________: have 1
cotyledon (seed leaf), parallel veins,
flowers in 3x, fibrous roots
Plants reproduce with sex cells and with spores. Their life cycle has two stages:
a. __________________________________: makes spores
b. ________________________________: makes sex cells (gametes)
Winter Trees
There are two ways to identify trees in the winter:
- _________________________
- _________________________
______________________________ (gymnosperms) are woody plants that produce seeds inside of cones.
- They are also known as ________________________.
- They are adapted to living in much dryer conditions; their needle-like leaves lose little water.
- They also retain their leaves throughout the year; instead they _______________________ their
needles throughout the year (instead of losing them all in the fall).
Directions for using the tree finder guides:
1. Select a ______________________ from the tree you wish to identify. Avoid freaks.
2. Start at the top of page 5.
3. Proceed step by step, considering both choices under each symbol.
4. When you have made your final choice, arriving at the name of the leaf, compare your leaf with the
illustration and check the other features shown.