Sections on plant webpage

Early Land Plants

Land plants evolved around 460 million years ago. These primitive land plants were small because they lacked vascular tissue to transport nutrients and water throughout the plant. In class, we talked about the three major phylum of non vascular plants - liverworts (phylum Hepaticophyta) and hornworts (phylum Anthocerophyta) which completely lack vascular tissue, and mosses (phylum Bryophyta) which have a primitive type of conducting tissue. To get an overview of these wonderful plants, watch the video with Matt Von Bonrat, the collections manager and adjunct curator in the Botany Department at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. 

Seed Dispersal

In class, we discussed the different ways and adaptations seeds have to disperse (transport) from one place to another. Here is some resources that expand on the topic and videos that expand upon the topic.

Maple Samara (winged seed) Dispersal 

Check out the biomechanics of a dispersing maple fruit. Maple fruits are adapted to catch the wind and can travel up to 6 miles in a brisk wind. You are probably most familiar with their helicopter flight as you walk under a maple tree. The video on the left shows how the curved wing of a maple samara (samara = a winged seed) creates a vortex in the air. The video is on the left.

Explosive Seed Dispersal

Certain species of plants have evolved traits that enable their seeds to disperse via propulsion or "explosion". Check out this nice video by Dr. Sakamoto of the Bionic Design Laboratory at Kanazawa University in Japan.

Fire Dispersal

In 1988, 1.2 million acres of Yellowstone National Park burned down. Fire is a natural feature of many ecosystems and plants have adaptations to help them survive or persist through a fire. For example, lodgepole pine trees are one of the dominant tree species at Yellowstone. Check out the slide show and this link to learn more about fire ecology and the adaptations plants have to take advantage of fire. Check out the Yellowstone National Park web page explaining the history of fire at Yellowstone National Park. Here is a great video and article from the New York Times.

Plant Growth

  • Check out this incredible time lapse video 
How do plants grow? Read this article by Nature Education on stem cells in plants.

Plant Phenology