Chapter 6 – Plants
Plant Features
- Most plants have two traits in common
1) Almost all have chloroplasts
- contain chlorophyll
- helps in the process of photosynthesis
- this is the main process that separates plants and animals
2) Have a stiff cell wall that supports the plant
How Plants are Classified
- the two groups of plants are based on whether or not they have cells that form tubes through the length of the plant
- Two Groups
1) Nonvascular Plants = plants that don’t have tubelike cells in their
stems or leaves
- grow close to the ground in moist areas
- don’t have roots – take up water by osmosis by hairlike cells
2) Vascular Plants = plants that have tubelike cells in their roots, stems,
and leaves to carry food and water
- roots, stems, and leaves are the organs of a plant
- roots = anchor plants and take in water/minerals from the soil
- stems = carry water to all parts of the plant and hold the leaves up
to the sunlight
- leaves = food making organ
Nonvascular Plants
- examples: mosses and liverworts
- moss = a small, nonvascular plant that has both stems and leaves but no roots
- are fixed to the ground or tree trunks by hairlike cells that take up water
- the leaves are only one to two cells thick and will quickly dry out if
taken from their moist environment
- are food for some animals (worms and snails), help soil from washing
away, and create soil by breaking down rocks
Vascular Plants
- most of the plants you see everyday
- have tubelike cells that carry food and water throughout the plant
- two tubelike cells:
1) xylem = carry water and dissolved minerals from the roots to leaves
2) phloem = carry food that is made in the leaves to all parts of the plant
Types of Vascular Plants
1) Fern = vascular plant that reproduces by spores
- grow in moist, shaded areas
2) Conifer = a vascular plant that produces seeds in cones
- seed = the part of the plant that contains a young plant and stored food
- the young plant is an embryo = an organism in its earliest stages of
growth
- called evergreens = keep their leaves throughout the year
- pine trees produce male and female cones
- male cones produce pollen = tiny grains of seed plants in which
sperm develop
- female cones contain the egg cells
- seeds form in between the scales of the cone
- supply 3/ 4 of the lumber that is used in the world (building, paper)
3) Flowering Plant = a vascular plant that produces seeds inside a flower
- flower = the reproductive part of the plant
- produce pollen
- the female flower parts develop into the fruit that protects the seeds
- examples: tomato plants, roses, grasses