Kenzie's Biology 11 Blog: Plant Photo Journal

Mosses:

Mosses are found in moist and shady environments where water is nearby. They need this type of environment due to their swimming sperm. So without water, they cannot reproduce and when plants plants don't reproduce, it leads to their extinction. For example, mosses can live on rocks but only if the rock is moist/wet at all times! Other than that, you will see them on the ground or in grass where moisture is availible at ease. Mosses cannot grow tall because they are Non-Vascular which means that hey do not have tissues that carry water to their cells. In other words, mosses have to absorb nutrients directly instead of carrying the nutrients to other parts of the plant such as their leaves.

Moss
(Found in shaded area in
front of the school)

Moss

(Found in the Forest

behind the school)

Ferns:

Like Mosses, Ferns are found in Moist environments also because they not only need it for nutrients but it is also necessary for Fern Reproduction. Reason being that once the spores from the Fern are released, they form a Prothallus and the Prothallus need water for their swimming sperm which leads to fertilization. And Fertilization leads to new generations of Ferns. Although Ferns and Mosses are similar in environments, they are different in structure. As you can see Ferns are much taller than Mosses because Ferns have Vascular Tissue! Vascular Tissue allows them to carry water to different sections of the plant which allows Ferns to grow tall and still receive all the nutrients it needs. Another difference is that Ferns need to grow in soil because without soil the plants has no anchor to the ground and with no anchor, it makes it impossible for Ferns to grow tall.

Front Side of Fern

Back side of Fern

Front side of Fern

Gymnosperms:

Gymnosperms live in varied environments due to the fact that instead of having spores or swimming sperm, they have seeds which provide protection and can last long periods of time before the seed becomes "active" and starts to grow. But before a seed can be formed, the plant has to first go through pollination. Pollination is when the the anther releases pollen grains (from the male part) and the pollen grain becomes trapped in the ovulate cone (female part). From here, Pollination leads to Fertilization. Now Fertilization occurs because the Pollen grain start to grow pollen tubes and from there, sperm is release into the egg cell. Now a Zygote of the plant has developed which in the future will lead to a gymnosperm seed!

Gymnosperm Bush
(Found in front of the school)

Male Cones

Female Cone

Alaskan Cedar Tree

Female Cones (Big Spheres)

Male Cones (Small Ovals)

Gymnosperm tree

(Found in Forest behind the school)

Angiosperms:

Angiosperms are well developed for life on land because of how they have the ability to attract things to them which help disperse their offspring. For example some angiosperms reproduce by Spores and these Spores are found in colourful flowers. These flowers are meant to look beautiful to attract organisms to it and hopefully help in pollination. An example of this is when pollinators such as bees take nectar from flowers. Or another example is when plants angiosperms have fruits! The colorful and tasty fruit is meant to attract animals to eat it and later poop out the seed somewhere far away where that seed can grow and develop into a new plant! Pretty cool, eh?

Dicots: