Origin of Plants

Principal Biological Concepts

A. Charophytes as probable ancestors to terrestrial plants. B. Terrestrial adaptations. C. Alternation of generations. D. Archegonia/ antheridia. E. Vascular tissues. F. Seeds. G. Characters and synapomorphies of plant clades

Paleozoic = 542 to 251 million years ago

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Kingdom PLANTAE Land Plants (embryophytes)

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Adaptations to land

Adaptations to terrestrial existence

1. Support - rigid tissues, weight no longer borne by water. 2. Water transport and conservation - need to protect against desiccation. Characteristics...
a. vascular tissues - xylem and phloem b. apical meristems c. stems, roots, leaves with vascular tissues (except Bryophytes) d. waxy cuticle e. stomata in leaves

Kingdom Chlorophyta Green Algae

Liverworts Hornworts Mosses Lycophytes Horsetails

Non-vascular plants Vascular Plants (no seeds) Vascular seed Plants Flowering Plants

Ferns

Cycads Ginkgo Conifers Gnetum Angiosperms

Photosynthetic life moves onto land

What did this look like?

Next week

One of the most important events in the history of the Earth: The complete plant colonization to the land Occurred between the Ordovivian Silurian ~450 440 Ma

Cooksonia now extinct

10 m tall!!

Early land plants did not have roots formed symbiotic associations with fungi from 420 mya

Kingdom PLANTAE Land Plants (embryophytes)

4 groups 1. Bryophytes - non-vascular plants 2. Pteridophytes - non-seeded vascular plants 3. Gymnosperms - seeded vascular plants 4. Angiosperms - flowering plants

Kingdom Chlorophyta Green Algae

Liverworts Hornworts Mosses Lycophytes Horsetails

Non-vascular plants Vascular Plants (no seeds) Vascular seed Plants Flowering Plants

Ferns

Cycads Ginkgo Conifers Gnetum Angiosperms

Some definitions:

Gametophyte: gametophyte is the multicellular structure, or phase, that is haploid, containing a single set of chromosomes. The gametophyte produces male or female gametes (or both), by a process of cell division called mitosis Sporophyte: the plant in which meiosis occurs and produces spores Monoecious: male and female gametes produced on the same plant Dioecious: male and female gametes produced on separate plants Antheridia: the male sperm-bearing organ Archegonia: the female egg-bearing organ

Gametangia: Archegonium of Marchantia (left) Antheridium of a hornwort (right)

Alternation of generations
Diploid Haploid

Alternation of generations
1. Alternation between sporophyte (sporeproducing) and gametophyte (gameteproducing), diploid and haploid. 2. Transitions of generations marked by meiosis and syngamy (fertilization). 3. Evolutionarily important - haploid genes in plant gametophytes are transcribed (unlike those in animals). Gives the possibility of rapid selection.

Land plants: Apical meristems of shoots and roots roots

shoots

"BRYOPHYTES" non-vascular land plants

Hornwort
A. B. C. D.

Liverwort

Moss

Moss

Gametophyte dominant sporophyte reduced Often with separate sexes (dioecious). Antheridia - produce flagellated sperm. Archegonia - produce egg and house developing embryo (sporophyte). E. Antheridia and archegonia, or modifications thereof, are found in all early plant groups (through ferns). F. Water required for sperm transfer. Sperm are flagellated (i.e., motile). This is true of all primitive plants.

Kingdom Chlorophyta Green Algae

Liverworts Hornworts Mosses Lycophytes Horsetails

Non-vascular plants Vascular Plants (no seeds) Vascular seed Plants Flowering Plants

Ferns

Cycads Ginkgo Conifers Gnetum Angiosperms

Two phyla
1. Phylum Hepatophyta- liverworts a. antheridia and archegonia borne on gametangiophores antheridiophores and archegoniophores, respectively. b. asexual reproduction with gemmae cups. 2. Phylum Bryophyta - mosses NO VASCULAR TISSUE - therefore - small size (limits of diffusion), moist habitats, close to ground.

Liverworts Marchantia polymorpha Asexual Gemmae cups Antheridiophore

Liverworts

Archegoniophore

The life cycle of Polytrichum, a moss

Diploid

Haploid

Moss life cycle

Kingdom Chlorophyta Green Algae

Liverworts Hornworts Mosses Lycophytes Horsetails

Non-vascular plants Vascular Plants (no seeds) Vascular seed Plants Flowering Plants

Ferns

Cycads Ginkgo Conifers Gnetum Angiosperms

SEEDLESS VASCULAR PLANTS

Lycophyte (top left), whisk fern (top right), horsetail (bottom left), fern (bottom right)

Phylum LYCOPHYTA - club mosses and quillworts

1. True stems, roots, and leaves. 2. Leaves are small and scalelike with traces of vascular tissue = microphylls. 3. Strobilus = cluster of sporophylls (specialized leaves bearing sporangia), at tips of branches (Lycopodium) or along branches (Selaginella). 4. Free-living gametophyte.

Lycophyte

Lepidodendron - Ancient Lycopds (club mosses)

Phylum PTEROPHYTA ferns and fern allies

1. Whisk ferns (Psilotum)
a. Well developed xylem and phloem in stem. b. No true roots or leaves - secondarily lost. c. Rhizome (underground stem - absorptive) with rhizoids and with myccorhizae. d. Sporangia borne on shoots - unique character. e. Gametophytes are free-living, nonphotosynthetic, saprophytes with associated mycorrhizae.

Psilotum nudum

Horsetails (Equisetum)
a. Ribbed, jointed (nodes) stems with silica crystals = "scouring rushes." b. Leaves are non-photosynthetic microphylls. c. Underground rhizomes - asexual reproduction. d. True roots. e. Terminal strobili on reproductive shoots. f. Equisetum is only living genus.

Horsetails

This is how a forest of Calamites and Asteroxylon may have appeared just about anywhere on the Earth 390 million years ago. The Calamites are the slender "Christmas tree" shaped plants. They grew as tall as many of today's conifers, though they are the ancestors of the much smaller modern horsetails. The snake-like curlicue plants in the foreground are the now-extinct Asteroxylon, which emerged at the beginning of the Devonian period about 417 million years ago http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/earth/earth_02_paleozoic_111.htm

ns er a. Sporophyte dominant but dependent on gametophyte at first. F b. Independent (free-living, photosynthetic) gametophyte
(prothallus or prothallium) - without vascular tissues. Has antheridia and archegonia. c. True roots and stems (underground rhizomes) and leaves (megaphylls called fronds). d. Sporangia clustered in sori, often protected by indusium. e. In lab:
i. Cyrtomium (no. 5) ii. fern prothalium (no. 6) iii. fern sporophyte (no. 7) iv. live fern

The life cycle of a fern

Haploid
ly) t os m s( u ro o sp mo Ho

Diploid

Fern sporophyll, a leaf specialized for spore production

Indusium

Life cycle of a fern: mature sporangium

Fern gametophyte

Fern archegonia

Fern sporophytes growing out of fertilized gametophytes

Mature fern sporophyte produces spores

ns er F

Carboniferous forest ferns abundant

SEED PLANTS "SPERMATOPHYTES"

A. Seed = plant embryo protected by integument (seed coat). B. "GYMNOSPERMS" - "naked seeds"- seeds without protection of ovary. C. Sporophyte dominant - gametophyte reduced to very small size.
1. Megagametophyte - multicellular archegonium. 2. Microgametophyte - pollen grains - 3 or 4 cells. No antheridia. 3. Mega and micro are used in higher plants to denote the larger female structures and the smaller male ones.

Kingdom Chlorophyta Green Algae

Liverworts Hornworts Mosses Lycophytes Horsetails

Non-vascular plants Vascular Plants (no seeds) Vascular seed Plants Flowering Plants

Ferns

Cycads Ginkgo Conifers Gnetum Angiosperms

Seed fossil

From ovule to seed

Phylum GINKGOPHYTA ginkgo

A. Only one species living (Ginkgo biloba). Common ornamental - tolerant of pollution. B. Branches made up of long shoots and short shoots (= spur shoots). Leaves and fruits on spur shoots. C. Fan-shaped leaves. D. Dioecious. Female ovules fleshy - foul smelling. E. Flagellated sperm in pollen tube.

Phylum Ginkgophyta: Ginkgo biloba

us ro po os t er e H

Phylum Ginkgophyta: Ginkgo biloba

1945 http://www.xs4all.nl/~kwanten/hiroshima.htm

Ginkgo has free swimming sperm!

Ginkgo and the cycads are the only living seed-producing plants (spermatophytes) that have motile or free swimming sperm discovered in 1896 in a botanical garden in Tokyo

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multiflagellate sperm

biflagellate sperm

Phylum CYCADOPHYTA cycads

A. Tropical and subtropical. B. Palm-like with large, pinnate leaves. C. Terminal cones - plants are dioecious. Strobili and seeds may take 10 years to mature. D. Sperm are multiflagellated, wind-blown to female cone or some carried by beetle pollinators. Enters fluids secreted around micropyle. Pollen tube carries sperm nuclei to egg. E. In lab:
1. live Cycas 2. live Zamia - only cycad native to United States.

Cycads

Cycads havent changed too much since the Paleozoic (origin) This Antarcticycas grew in Antarctica during the Triassic Period ~250 Ma

Phylum CONIFEROPHYTA
500-600 species "evergreens pines, firs, larches, spruce, etc. Tallest = redwood 372 feet Oldest = bristlecone pine >4,900 years Most massive = Sequoia 102.6 feet circumference at base.

The oldest conifer fossil so far discovered is Swillingtonia denticulata, which dates from the Carboniferous of c.310 Ma.

Conifers dominant

http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/earth/earth_03_mesozoic_160.htm

Sequoia Sempervirens (Cupressaceae) Tallest redwoods over 300 feet

Over 4,000 years old

A. Monoecious B. Strobili = cones - borne on spur shoots

1. Staminate cones - male - microsporangia on microsporophylls. 2. Ovulate cones - female - ovules on ovulate scales with woody bract.
a. Ovule = female gametophyte (haploid) surrounded by nucellus and integument (both diploid). Mature ovule = seed.

C. Wind-blown pollen enters the ovulate cones when they are very small. Pollen tubes (immotile sperm) grow very slowly. So - fertilization may not occur for many months, even years, until the seed cones and the megagametophytes have matured.
1. Two sperm nuclei in pollen tube but only one is functional; the other degenerates.

D. Reproduction does not depend on water. E. Well over 1 year passes between pollination and fertilization. Seeds usually not mature until 2nd summer. F. Fire very important to many of these species.

Pine female strobili

Staminate pine cones

The life cycle of a pine

Spores developing in male cones

Turn to page 99 in your lab manual

Pine pollen

Kingdom Chlorophyta Green Algae

Liverworts Hornworts Mosses Lycophytes Horsetails

Non-vascular plants Vascular Plants (no seeds) Vascular seed Plants Flowering Plants

Ferns

Cycads Ginkgo Conifers Gnetum Angiosperms

s a s t es m s t r y s e ta y m s t r rt pe yt ph hy ph or s o h pe o p s ro no s cop onil rw rnw ro o io s y e o hl ha ym ng iv M C L Ho C M L G A

BRYOPHYTES

Gametophyte dominant
Cuticle, multicellular gametangia, embryo, multicellular sporophyte phragmoplast chlorophyll a and b/ Starch as a storage product/Cell wall of cellulose