BSC 314 Study Guide - Comprehensive Final Exam Guide - Photosynthesis, Bacteria, Fungus
Document Summary
When plants are mentioned, most people visualize one of the large dominant plants of their region perhaps a cactus for desert dwellers, or a vista of waving grasses in the prairie, or tall sycamores along a river in the midwest. All of these plants are angiosperms or flowering plants. Except for the trees of the coniferous forests, most of the large, visible plants around us in the temperate zone and the tropics are angiosperms. In past geologic eras they did not form the dominant vegetation during earlier eras, gymnosperms, ferns, or fern allieswere the principal players on earth, and before a terrestrial flora appeared, bacteria, algae, and protista colonized the primeval waters. There are close to 300,000 described species of angiosperms in the world. They are the plants we rely on for our food and shelter. They are feed for livestock and provide us with aesthetically pleasing landscapes and gardens.