Workshop on evolution of plants

By Dr.Malancha Sarkar


1. What are adaptations in land plants that help them thrive on land?




2. Mosses and ferns share a common trait that makes water droplets a necessity for sexual
reproduction. What is that trait?



3. Are the mosses well adapted for terrestrial life? Justify your answer.



4. Can you think of a way to demonstrate relationship between earths carbon dioxide
concentration and evolution of larger leaf size?






5. What are the major clades of seedless plants?



6. Ferns display a dominant sporophyte generation. Could you describe the major advance in
anatomy that enables most ferns to grow much larger than mosses?




7. How do you think that seedless plants transformed Earths ecology?




8. Alternation of generation occurs in plants and other organisms. What is the significance of
alternating haploid and diploid conditions in any organism?




9. How does the alternation of generations cycle differ among plant taxa?




10. What do you suppose might be the evolutionary significance of a heteromorphic alternation of
generations?





11. What is the ploidy( haploid /diploid) of the following structures in
I- Moss
a. Sporangium
b. Spore -
c. Gametophyte -
d. Gametangium-
e. Sperm-
f. Nutritional tissue of the female gametophyte-
II-Fern
a. Sporangia-
b. Spore-
c. Gametophyte-
d. Gametangia-
e. Sporophyte-

III Pine
a. Megasporangia and Microsporangia-
b. Megaspore and Microspore-
c. Archegonium-
d. Female gametophyte-
e. Microspores-
f. Embryo-
g. Seed-

IV Angiosperms
a. Endosperm-
b. Sporophyte-
c. Microsporangia/megasporangia-
d. Microspores/megaspores-
e. Female gametophyte-
12. What is dominant generation in
a. Bryophyte
b. Fern
c. Gymnosperms
d. Angiosperms


13. Why have bryophytes such as Moss been able to diversify into so many species even though
they have relatively small, dependent sporophytes?



14. What are secondary metabolites? Why did plants evolve these metabolites? List some of the
metabolites that used by humans