Kingdom Plantae

 

I.  The Importance of Plants

      A. Plants for food: Cereals & Fruits

      B. Food Production: The Green                            Revolution & Famines

      C. Other uses: Pharmaceuticals &                       Textiles

II.  Classification of Plants

      Nonvascular Plants: Bryophytes

      Vascular Plants

         Seedless plants: Ferns

         Seed plants

            Gymnosperms: conifers

            Angiosperms: flowering

                  Monocots

                  Dicots

III. Reproduction: Alternation of Generation

IV. Bryophytes: life cycle of the moss

V.  Seedless vascular plants: ferns

VI.  Gymnosperms

      A. ginkgo  

      B. conifers

VII. Angiosperms

      A. dicots

B. monocots

 

The Importance of Plants

                Fossilized pollen found on burial sites:  flowers on graves for >> 35,000 years

                1000 of 350 000 spp used for food

Plants for food

                Cultivation ca. 11000 years ago in Middle East: “Fertile Crescent”  (TRANS  T24)

                Selected desirable traits:  artificial selection

                                wild sheath breaks easily in the wind--select those that don’t

                CEREALS (f. Gramineae--the grass family)

                                Rich in carbs

                                > 1/2 of world’s cultivated land is devoted to rice, wheat, corn, oats...

                FRUITS: mature plant ovaries that contain seeds.  Grains are the fruits of cereals

Food Production

                By 2000: 6.2 billion people

                Green Revolution, 1950-1970.  Norman Borlaug, International Rice Institute in the P.I.

                                Dev rice w/ heavy heads & adapted to tropical regions (Nobel Peace Prize)

                                Probs: need fertilizer with poor soil in tropics; cost-prohibitive

                Famine

                                Root crops--cassava  can be grown in dry areas w/o fertilization or irrigation systems

                                Agroforestry:  crops alongside trees in TRF

                                Mixed croping: one fails, still have two

Other uses

                Pharmaceuticals

                                Digitalis for heart disease found in foxgloves

                                Periwinkles have 2 drugs for cancer

                                Pain killers, morphine and codeine from opium poppy

                                bark of willow tree: salicylic acid--aspirin

                Textiles

                                Cotton

                                Linen from flax