Lab 14 - Plants and their environment

Lab 14: Plants and their Interactions with the Environment. Goals: Know the steps involved in the development of seed plants beginning with the ovule. Understand the evolutionary significance of dispersal as well as the structural features that plants possess to effect dispersal. Know the morphology of an angiosperm fruit, including the various adaptations that it has for dispersal. Using leaves as examples, understand how plants have become adapted to an array of environmental parameters. Outline: Introduction The Seed Seeds vs. spores Seeds of a conifer - Pinus Seeds of flowering plants Seedlings Fruits and Dispersal Fruit Structure Dispersal Mechanisms Leaves and their interaction with the environment Variation in moisture Variation in Temperature Leaf heating experiment Plants and their Interactions with Animals Domatia Food Bodies Insectivorous Plants

Introduction

Plants interact with their environment in numerous and diverse ways. Sometimes these ways are not immediately apparent to the casual observer; yet, deeper study of these interactions opens an impressive view of how the members of the plant kingdom cope with constraints of the environment. This lab presents a sample of plant parts and some of the ways in which these parts have become adapted and modified in enhancing the efficiency of plant growth and reproduction.