based on Indiana's Academic Standards, Science,
as adopted by the Indiana State Board of Education, Nov 2000.

numbers (K:, 1: to 8:) refer to the age-appropriate grade-level for the content.

Review

Plants

Plant Life Cycle

grades secondary: to college:

plants exhibit Alternation of Generations

• sporophyte
  • produce spores (male & female)
• gametophyte
  • typically with separate sexes
    • male produces flagellated gametes (sperms)
    • female produces non-motile gametes (eggs)

• Higher plants
  • dominant sporophyte
  • gametophyte is reduced
• Lower plants
  • dominant gametophyte
  • sporophyte is reduced

Flowering Plants, Angiosperms [Phylum Magnoliophyta]

grades 1: to 3:

Trees, Flowers and Weeds

• roots, stems, leaves
• flowers, fruit

grades 4: to 6:

Flowering plants

• plants with seeds enclosed in fruit
• flowers
  • pistil with ovary
  • stamens with pollen producing sporangia
  • petals
  • sepals
  • bracts
• roots, stems, leaves

grades 5: to 8:

• Classes of Angiosperms
  • Dicots:
    • seeds with two cotyledons
    • flower parts in 5's (sometimes 4's)
    • leaves with branched veins
  • Monocots:
    • seeds with one cotyledon
    • flower parts in 3's
    • leaves with parallel veins
  • grasses (monocot):
    • seeds with reduced cotyledon; extensive endosperm
    • reduced flowers
    • leaves grow from base

grades 7: to 8:

Phylum Magnoliophyta

• dominant sporophyte, normally dioecious
• reduced gametophytes
  • pollen is male gametophyte
  • female is 8-cell structure contained in pistil
• fruit is covered:
  • seed = "embryo" + cotyledon(s) [stored food]
  • seed coat = female gametophyte
  • fruit is parent sporophyte tissue

Gymnosperms (Phyla Pinophyta, Ginkgophyta, Cycadophyta, Gnetophyta):

• characteristics
  • plants with "naked" seeds
  • dominant sporophyte
  • reduced gametophytes
  • cones
    • scales or bracts
    • sexes usually separate
• Pinophyta (Conifers)
  • trees with roots, stems, needles
• Ginkgophyta (Ginkgo)
  • Ginkgo biloba is only surviving species
  • virtually extinct, mostly cultivated
• Cycadophyta (Cycads)
  • trees resemble short palms, with cones
  • dominant tree of Triassic & Jurassic
• Gnetophyta (Gnetum)
  • poorly known tropical to sub-tropical shrubs, vines

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