Introduction to Botany

Botany

• Study of plants, also known as plant science
• Botane: Greek word for "pasture" or "grass"
• A botanist is a person who specializes in the study of plants

Ancient Knowledge

• Aristotle: Founder of plant science who stated plant life is lower and specialized than animal life
• Theophrastus: Father of plant science, who wrote about the history and causes of plants, and was the Most outstanding botanist in early botany

Plant Form, Classification, and Function

• Plants are multicellular organisms that come in different shapes and sizes
• Some are short-lived, some are not
• Plants are typically green and adapted to various habitats and methods, capable of movement through tropism/phototropism
• Columbine: A short-lived plant with a 3-4 year lifespan

Sequoia

• The oldest known specimen is 3,266 years old
• Trees age is determined by annual rings

Great Basin Bristlecone Pine

• Can live for over 5,000 years due to harsh living conditions

Pando

• The oldest living tree colony, approximately 80,000 years old

Vascular - Seed Plants

• Seed plants are called Spermatophytes or Spermatophyta
• Not all seed plants produce flowers

Gymnosperm

• Seed plants with unenclosed seeds in cones, such as pine, spruce and fur trees

Angiosperm

• Seed plants that produce flowers and seeds
• Seeds are contained in fruits from ovary fertilization

Dicotyledon or Dicots

• Largest plant group with a variety of trees, shrubs, vines, and herbaceous plants
• Broad leaves with netted venation and flowers with 4 or 5 petals
• It has 2 cotyledons as part of the embryo in the seed
• Examples include mango, acacia, sampaloc, gumamela, narra, bougainvilla, tomato, squash, and pepper

Monocotyledon or Monocot

• Long, narrow leaves with parallel veins
• The seeds only contain one cotyledon where the sepal and petal generally occur in threes
• Examples include grass, rice, sugar cane, banana, bamboo, wheat, and corn

Plant Structure

• Veins: Networks in leaves extending from the midrib
• Petiole: the stalk that attaches the blade to the stem
• Stipules: earlike lobes at the base of the petiole
• Sessile lacks a petiole where the leaves are attached directly to the stem

Venation

• Simple leaves have 1 blade and compound leaves have many leaves

Texture

• Fleshy has a fleshy texture and Succulent has a succulent texture such as aloe vera

Shape

• Leaf shapes can be linear, oblong, eliptic, ovate, cordate

Stem

• The plant axis bearing buds, shoots, leaves, and roots
• Transports water, minerals, and food
• May store food, and produce food if green
• Composed of vascular tissues

Modified Stems

• Bulb: Modified stem comprised of Onions, which are concentric rings when sliced
• Clove: An example is garlic, which is bulb-like structures that easily separate
• Tuber: The tuber is an enlarged modified stem, an example being Potatoes, which grow on the parent plant
• Rhizome: Horizontal underground stem or rootstock, for example Ginger
• Runner/Stolons: Horizontal stems running above ground, and example being Strawberries

Vascular - Seedless Plants

• Contains vascular tissue but does not produce flowers or seeds
• Reproduces via haploid, unicellular spores instead of seeds
• An example is ferns

Nonvascular Plants

• Also called bryophytes
• Lacks roots (rhizoid), stems, and leaves
• Low-growing and reproduces with spores in moist habitats
• An example is moss

Unifying Themes

• Multicellular organisms are highly integrated and composed of organized parts
• Living things exchange energy with their environment
• Metabolism is based on chemistry principles
• Living things reproduce by passing on genes and information
• Living things respond and adapt to external environment
• All share parts of common ancestry

Roots

• Located below the surface of the soil
• 4 Major Functions
• Absorbing water and minerals
• Anchoring the plant body
• Food and nutrient storage
• Vegetative or asexual reproduction
• Tap Roots: Large, central, and dominant root
• Grows directly downward
• Characteristic of dicots
• Fibrous Roots: Thin and moderately branching
• Grows from the stem
• Characteristic of seedless and monocot plants
• Adventitious Roots: Forms on any plant part other than the roots
• Aerating Roots: Roots rise above the ground and have pores for gas exchange
• Buttress Roots: Large roots found on tall and shallowly rooted trees in rainforests, preventing falling and gathering nutrients

Parts of a Flower

• Stamen: Male part, consisting of anther (containing pollen) and filament (supporting the anther)
• Pistil/Carpel: Female part, consisting of stigma (landing zone for pollen), style (stalk connecting stigma and ovary), and ovary (containing ovules which develop into seed upon fertilization)
• Petal: Attracts pollinators with bright colors
• Sepals: Protects the inner flower parts
• Receptacle: Holds all the flower's organs together

Variations in Floral Structure

• Complete Flower: All four sets of flower parts (petals, sepal, pistil, and stamen) are present
• Incomplete Flower: One or more of the floral sets are missing

Pollination

• Pollen transfer from stamen to stigma by various agents
• Self-pollination: Pollen from the same flower
• Cross-pollination: Pollen from another flower
• Agents Of Pollination: Insects, wind, water, or animals.

Fruit

• Seed-bearing structures found only in angiosperms
• Simple Fruits: They develop from a single ovary, examples being drupes.
• Aggregate Fruits: They develop from multiple ovaries of a single flower, and are collections of fruitlets, examples including berries.
• Multiple Fruits: They develop from the ovaries of several flowers fused together, with pineapple being an example.

Seed

• A small embryonic plant enclosed with stores food, in varying thickness coat for protection
• Seed formation completes plant reproduction process

Advantages of Seeds

• Maintains dormancy until better environmental conditions arise
• Offers protection to the young plant
• Supplies with adequate nutrients for initial photosynthesis
• Allows for dispersal of plants

Seed Components

• Seed Coat: Protects the embryo
• Embryo: Develops into a new plant which consists of the cotyledon that is the first leaf, and the basis of the stem which is epicotyl or hypocotyl, and the radicle which forms the first root.

Plant Growth Processes

-Photosynthesis:

• The use of water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight to produce glucose -Transpiration:
• Water evaporation from leaves through stomata, regulating temperature, cell turgidity, and mineral movement.
• 3 Types: stomatal, cuticular, and lenticular transpiration

Tropism

• Biological phenomenon indicating turning or growth movement
• Direction is dependent on the stimulus
• Types include phototropism, geotropism, thigmotropism, hydrotropism, and chemotropism

Carnivorous Plants

• Active Carnivorous Plant: Uses snap traps such as venus fly traps to capture prey
• Semi-active Traps: Having sticky glands like flypaper, for example Sundew
• Passive Traps: Pitfall traps that turn modified leaves into liquid-filled pitchers digesting prey
• Carnivorous plants thrive in nutrient-poor environments, obtaining essential elements through carnivory

Plant Nutrition

• Involves the supply and absorption of chemical compounds for growth and metabolism
• Needs both plant nutrients and essential elements
• Boron: It helps in cell wall synthesis and root development
• Calcium: A structural cell component
• Chlorine: It helps in stomatal opening regulation
• Magnesium: An esential component of chlorophyll synthesis
• Nitrogen: Enables general plant growth of roots, stem, leaf, and flowers
• Phosphorus: Structural component of phospholipids
• Zinc: Helps in stem elongation, with protein and starch synthesis

Plant Hormones and their Function

• Crucial for plant defense against pathogens
• Auxin: Promotes stem elongation and apical dominance, also affects the bending of plants toward light (phototropism)
• Gibberellins: Promote stem elongation, fruit enlargement, germination, leaf and fruit senescence, and parthenocarpy
• Cytokinin: Stimulates cell division (cytokinesis), chloroplast formation and branching
• Ethylene: A gas released for fruit ripening
• Ascisic Acid: Induces seed/bud dormancy, and leaf detachment while inhibiting germination. And also called stress hormone, closure of stomata to prevent germination under unfavorable conditions and promotes leaf detachment.

Parthenocarpy

• Meaning Virgin Fruit in Greek
• Naturally or artificially induced to produce without fertilization
• Results in seedless fruit
• Can be achieved through gibberellins

Zoology

• The scientific study of animals

Taxonomy

• Science of classifying organisms internationally, placing each within increasingly inclusive groupings.

Taxonomic Classification System

• Based on the Linnaean system
• Also called Linnaean system
• Carolus Linnaeus was a Swedish naturalist, zoologist, and physician developed a hierarchical model.

Binomial Nomenclature

• Naming system using two names, a two-epithet name (genus and species)
• Introduced by Linnaeus in 1751
• Rules For How To Write The Binomial Name
• Genus is listed first, followed by the species
• Names should be written in Greek or Latin
• The name refers or relates to the organism
• All genus starts with Capital letters and species starts with Lowercase letters
• The Genus should come first and has to be italicized or underlined

Three Domains of Life

• Archaea: Microorganisms called Extremophiles that can thrive in extreme environments such as halophiles (high salt concentration) and thermophiles (extreme temperatures)
• Bacteria: Includes Cyanobacteria (photosynthetic) and Heterotrophic bacteria
• Eukarya: Includes protista, fungi, plants and animals

Eukaryota

• The biggest domain of life
• Cells contain membrane enclosed nucleus

Monera

• Prokaryotic without a membrane enclosed nucleus
• Capable of photosynthesis
• may be free-moving or anchored
• Capable of asexual reproduction and cloning

Protists

• Eukaryotic
• unicellular or multicellular
• capable of absorbing food
• Capable of sexual or asexual absorption

Fungi

• Eukaryotic
• Multicellular
• Absorbs nutrition from other organisms
• Non motile
• Sexual or asexual reproduction

Plants

• Eukaryotic
• Multicellular
• Nonmotile
• Exhibits tropism
• Sexual or asexual reproduction

Animalia

• Eukaryotic
• Multicellular
• Motile
• Sexual reproduction

Kingdom Animalia (Metazoa)

• Wide range of species including nematodes, microscopic invertebrates, and blue whales
• Most diverse kingdom
• Display diverse sizes, shapes, colors, and forms, from simple to complex

Characteristics of Kingdom Animalia

• Multicellular with eukaryotic organization
• Lacking cell walls and chloroplasts, containing more mitochondria
• Featuring complex tissues: epithelial, connective, muscular, and nervous
• Tissues organize into complex systems
• Heterotrophic, using a number of nutrition
• Exhibits higher metabolism
• Require free oxygen for energy
• Store energy as fats and oils
• Can be both be motile or nonmotile at some point in life
• Can reproduce sexually and asexually
• Shows advanced alternation of generations/ genetic variation
• Displays complex developmental stages, having embryonic and larval stages until it reaches adulthood to adult stage, displays complex and elaborate behavior to enhance survivability

Animal Reproduction

• Some animals reproduce both sexually and asexually
• Reproduction can occur asexually, thus producing identical copies or clones, while sexual reproduction results in diverse offspring

Budding

• New offspring grows from the parent, forming a colony

Fragmentation

• Animals spontaneously divide into separate pieces which regrow into complete organisms

Polyembryony

• A type of asexual reproduction derived from sexual reproduction
• Multiple embryos develop from a single fertilized egg
• Forming clones.
• Seen in nine-banded armadillos which gives birth to quadruplets

Regeneration

• The regrowth of missing or damaged parts, which can occur naturally by starfish

Parthenogenesis

• Know as virgin birth
• Occurs naturally without fertilization in both invertabrate and non-vertabrate animals to fertilize and create living animals
• This even takes place in shrimps, insects, fish and frog

Monoecious

• Hermaphrodites that produce both male and female reproduction
• Most especially are parasites - nonmotile

Dioecious

• The species produces both male and female gametes

Protandry and Protogyny

• It is the ability for hermaphrodictic to change sexes
• This is seen in the clownfish and fish such as Nemo

Sexual Dimorphism

• Invertebrates are smaller than males vs the smaller gender is Female

Phylum Porifera

• Meaning Pore Bearing
• The most primitive form
• Tissues are absent
• Simple organisms with level of cells
• Contains water cell types

Cell Structures

• Flattened epithelial cells
• Creates electrical water currents in canals
• Gelantinious mix that scartters cells
• Calcium - carbondate silica fiber
• Asexual buds in water

Body orgination

• Ascou
• sycon
• leucon

Class

• Desmospngiae- commercial sea sponge
• calaceria - sponge
• Herexactillida - Glasee

How do sponges eat

• Water passes through pores and the cells gather food and remove water from the top of each

Cell and Types of tissue

• epithelial form
• forms a gastric demis
• water is an orginism
• Cyndricites

Types of BOdy Organization

• Polyp - looks like sac
• medusa - jellyfish
• colonial - have to do with feeding

Hydrozoa

• Has polyp more dominate class structure
• Both have medus and popyp types

Scyphoza

• Medussa with polyp

Cuboza

• POisonouss form