Science Unit A: Chapter 1 – Plant Structure and Function study guide
Lesson 1: How are Plants Grouped?
 All plants are alike in one way. They use water, carbon dioxide, and energy from sunlight to make sugar.
 Classifying – grouping things by a similar or different characteristic.
 Reproduce – make more of the same kind
 Plants can be classified into two groups: plants that make seeds and plants that do not make seeds.
 Spores are tiny cells produced by ferns and mosses which can grow into a new plant.
PLANT CLASSIFICATION
make seeds
flowering plants: seeds
conifers: seeds made
from flowers
inside cones (no flowers)
do not make seeds
ferns: spores found on
Mosses: spores in spore
underside of leaf
cases
Lesson 2: What are the parts of a flower?
Flowers with 4 parts:
 Sepal – leaflike part that protects a flower bud and that is usually green
 Pistil – makes the eggs that grow into seeds
 Stamen – makes pollen
 Pollen (sperm) – tiny grains found on a stamen which make seeds when combined with an egg
Parts work together to create seeds: A seed is produced when material in pollen combines with an egg.
This is called fertilization. The pollen is found on the stamen and the egg is in the lower part of the pistil
called the ovary.
Flowers with less than 4 parts:
 Two of the same kind of plant can have different parts
 Several plants must work together to create seeds
 Corn plants have two kinds of flowers on the same plant: corn, maple trees, oak trees, squash
 Cottonwood trees have two kinds of flowers but not on the same tree. You must have two
different cottonwood trees growing near each other, each with a different kind of flower.
Lesson 3: How do flowers make seeds and fruits?
 Pollination takes place when pollen moves from the tips of the stamen to the sticky tips of the pistil.
 Ways flowers pollinate:
o Wind blows the pollen, especially in grasses
o Bees, butterflies, birds, and other insects gathering nectar (liquid food in plants)
o Colors and smells of flowers attract birds and insects
o Small animals carry them
 Bottom of pistil is the ovary. Inside the ovary, in an ovule, is the egg.
 Fertilization occurs when pollen moves down the pistil and combines with the egg to make a seed.
 Ovary’s job is to protect the growing seeds. Ovary expands as seeds grow. Ovary can become they fruit,
protecting the seed.
 Some fruits have a lot of water, like apples and tomatoes.
 Seeds are either monocot or dicot. Monocot seeds have one seed leaf (example: corn). Dicot seeds have
two seed leaves and can be split in half (example: beans, peas).
 The embryo is the part of the seed that can grow into a new plant.
1
Sc. Unit A: Ch.1 guide cont.
Lesson 4: What is the life cycle of a flowering plant?
 dormant - resting stage of seeds where they aren’t growing
 Dormant seeds will grow with water, oxygen, and the right temperature. Some also need soil.
 Germinate – seeds start to grow or sprout
 Germinating seeds turn into seedlings when stored food in the seed leaf is used up and the leaves are
making sugar by themselves.
 Seedlings become mature plants by using water, air, the right temperature, sunlight, and usually soil.
 Mature plants make seeds and the cycle is repeated.
Ovules:
egg cells
Ovary:
contains egg cells
2