Flowering plant

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Flowering plant
Temporal range:
Ma
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Spermatophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Groups (APG IV)[2]

Basal angiosperms

Core angiosperms

Synonyms

Flowering plants are

seeds are enclosed within a fruit. They are by far the most diverse group of land plants with 64 orders, 416 families, approximately 13,000 known genera and 300,000 known species.[8] Angiosperms were formerly called Magnoliophyta (/mæɡˌnliˈɒfətə, -əˈftə/).[9]

Angiosperms are distinguished from the other

within their seeds, and fruits that completely envelop the seeds.

The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from the common ancestor of all living gymnosperms before the end of the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago, but the earliest angiosperm fossils are in the form of pollen around 134 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous. Over the course of the Cretaceous, angiosperms diversified explosively, becoming the dominant group of plants across the planet by the end of the period, corresponding with the decline and extinction of previously widespread gymnosperm groups.

Distinguishing features

Angiosperms differ from other seed plants in several ways.

Feature Description Image
Flowers The
seed plants.[10]
Reduced gametophytes, three cells in male, seven cells with eight nuclei in female The gametophytes are smaller than those of gymnosperms.
fertilization, which in gymnosperms is up to a year.[12]
Embryo sac with endosperm around reduced female gametophyte
Endosperm Endosperm forms after fertilization but before the zygote divides. It provides food for the developing embryo, the cotyledons, and sometimes the seedling.[13]
Closed
carpel enclosing the ovules
.
Once the ovules are fertilised, the carpels, often with surrounding tissues, develop into fruits. Gymnosperms have unenclosed seeds.[14]
Xylem made of vessel elements Open vessel elements are stacked end to end to form continuous tubes, whereas gymnosperm xylem is made of tapered
tracheids connected by small pits.[15]

Diversity

Ecological diversity

The largest angiosperms are Eucalyptus gum trees of Australia, and Shorea faguetiana, dipterocarp rainforest trees of Southeast Asia, both of which can reach almost 100 metres (330 ft) in height.[16] The smallest are Wolffia duckweeds which float on freshwater, each plant less than 2 millimetres (0.08 in) across.[17]

  • Photosynthetic and parasitic
  • Gunnera captures sunlight for photosynthesis over the large surfaces of its leaves, which are supported by strong veins.

    Gunnera captures sunlight for photosynthesis over the large surfaces of its leaves, which are supported by strong veins.

  • Orobanche purpurea, a parasitic broomrape with no leaves, obtains all its food from other plants.

    Orobanche purpurea, a parasitic broomrape with no leaves, obtains all its food from other plants.

Considering their method of obtaining energy, some 99% of flowering plants are

orchids for part or all of their life-cycle,[18] or on other plants, either wholly like the broomrapes, Orobanche, or partially like the witchweeds, Striga.[19]

In terms of their environment, flowering plants are cosmopolitan, occupying a wide range of

coniferous forest.[20] The seagrasses in the Alismatales grow in marine environments, spreading with rhizomes that grow through the mud in sheltered coastal waters.[21]

Some specialised angiosperms are able to flourish in extremely acid or alkaline habitats. The

sundews, many of which live in nutrient-poor acid bogs, are carnivorous plants, able to derive nutrients such as nitrate from the bodies of trapped insects.[22] Other flowers such as Gentiana verna, the spring gentian, are adapted to the alkaline conditions found on calcium-rich chalk and limestone, which give rise to often dry topographies such as limestone pavement.[23]

As for their

climbing on other plants in the manner of vines or lianas.[25]

Taxonomic diversity

The number of species of flowering plants is estimated to be in the range of 250,000 to 400,000.

APG IV added five new orders (Boraginales, Dilleniales, Icacinales, Metteniusales and Vahliales), along with some new families, making a total of 64 angiosperm orders and 416 families.[2]

The diversity of flowering plants is not evenly distributed. Nearly all species belong to the eudicot (75%), monocot (23%), and magnoliid (2%) clades. The remaining five clades contain a little over 250 species in total; i.e. less than 0.1% of flowering plant diversity, divided among nine families. The 25 most species-rich of 443 families,[32] containing over 166,000 species between them in their APG circumscriptions, are:

The 25 largest angiosperm families
Group Family English name No. of spp.
Eudicot Asteraceae or Compositae daisy 22,750
Monocot
Orchidaceae
orchid 21,950
Eudicot Fabaceae or Leguminosae pea, legume 19,400
Eudicot Rubiaceae madder 13,150 [33]
Monocot Poaceae or Gramineae
grass
10,035
Eudicot Lamiaceae or Labiatae mint 7,175
Eudicot Euphorbiaceae
spurge
5,735
Eudicot Melastomataceae melastome 5,005
Eudicot Myrtaceae myrtle 4,625
Eudicot Apocynaceae dogbane 4,555
Monocot Cyperaceae
sedge
4,350
Eudicot Malvaceae mallow 4,225
Monocot Araceae arum 4,025
Eudicot Ericaceae heath 3,995
Eudicot Gesneriaceae gesneriad 3,870
Eudicot Apiaceae or Umbelliferae parsley 3,780
Eudicot Brassicaceae or Cruciferae cabbage 3,710
Magnoliid dicot Piperaceae
pepper
3,600
Monocot Bromeliaceae bromeliad 3,540
Eudicot Acanthaceae acanthus 3,500
Eudicot Rosaceae rose 2,830
Eudicot Boraginaceae borage 2,740
Eudicot Urticaceae nettle 2,625
Eudicot Ranunculaceae
buttercup
2,525
Magnoliid dicot Lauraceae laurel 2,500

Evolution

History of classification

The botanical term "angiosperm", from Greek words angeíon (

Phylogeny

External

In 2019, a molecular phylogeny of plants placed the flowering plants in their evolutionary context:[42]

Embryophytes

WWB-0265-127-Polytrichum formosum.png

Tracheophytes

Lycopodium clavatum - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen-219 (extracted).jpg

The ferns of Great Britain, and their allies the club-mosses, pepperworts, and horsetails (Pl. 12) (8516512808).jpg

Spermatophytes

Pinus montesumae tab22 2.jpg

Angiosperms

160 Ranunculus repens.jpg

seed plants
vascular plants
land plants

Internal

The major groups of living angiosperms are:[43][2]

 Angiosperms 

Amborellales
Amborella trichopoda.jpg
1 sp. New Caledonia
shrub

2007 nymphaea lotus.jpg c. 80 spp.[44] water lilies
& allies

Schisandra rubriflora.jpg c. 100 spp.[44]
woody plants

Magnolia obovata 02.jpg c. 10,000 spp.[44] 3-part
flowers, 1-pore pollen, usu. branch-veined leaves

Chloranthales
Sarcandra glabra2.jpg
77 spp.[45]
aromatic, toothed leaves

Monocots
White orchid in Clara bog. 03.jpg c. 70,000 spp.[46]
3-part flowers, 1 cotyledon
, 1-pore pollen, usu. parallel-veined leaves  

Ceratophyllales
CeratophyllumSubmersum.jpg c. 6 spp.[44]
aquatic plants

Senecio angulatus 003.jpg c. 175,000 spp.[44]
4- or 5-part flowers, 3-pore pollen, usu. branch-veined leaves

Core angiosperms

Fossil history

Adaptive radiation in the Cretaceous created many flowering plants, such as Sagaria in the Ranunculaceae
.

Fossilised

Several disputed claims of pre-Cretaceous angiosperm fossils have been made, such as the upper

Sanmiguelia lewisi.[50] Oleanane, a secondary metabolite produced by many flowering plants, has been found in Permian deposits of that age together with fossils of gigantopterids,[51] extinct seed plants that share many features with flowering plants.[52] Molecular evidence suggests that the ancestors of angiosperms diverged from the gymnosperms during the late Devonian, about 365 million years ago.[53] Pollen that looks much like that of angiosperms has been found in the Middle Triassic (247.2–242.0 Ma).[53][54]

The

stem-group angiosperm,[56] but other researchers contend that the structures are decomposed conifer cones.[57][58]

The oldest fossils definitively attributable to angiosperms are reticulated monosulcate pollen from the late

Archaefructus liaoningensis, is dated to about 125 million years ago in the Cretaceous.[59]

Bayesian analysis of 52 angiosperm taxa suggested that the crown group of angiosperms evolved between 178 million years ago and 198 million years ago.[61]

The great angiosperm radiation, when a great diversity of angiosperms appears in the fossil record, occurred in the mid-Cretaceous, approximately 100 million years ago. However, a study in 2007 estimated that the divergence of the five most recent of the eight main groups, namely the genus Ceratophyllum, the family Chloranthaceae, the eudicots, the magnoliids, and the monocots, occurred around 140 million years ago.[62]

By the late Cretaceous, angiosperms appear to have dominated environments formerly occupied by

cycadophytes. Large canopy-forming trees replaced conifers as the dominant trees close to the end of the Cretaceous, 66 million years ago or even later, at the beginning of the Paleogene.[63] The radiation of herbaceous angiosperms occurred much later.[64]

Reproduction

Flowers

The characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Its function is to ensure

axil of a leaf.[66] The flower-bearing part of the plant is usually sharply distinguished from the leaf-bearing part, and forms a branch-system called an inflorescence.[37]

Flowers produce two kinds of reproductive cells.

The flower may consist only of these parts, as in wind-pollinated plants like the willow, where each flower comprises only a few stamens or two carpels.[37] In insect- or bird-pollinated plants, other structures protect the sporophylls and attract pollinators. The individual members of these surrounding structures are known as sepals and petals (or tepals in flowers such as Magnolia where sepals and petals are not distinguishable from each other). The outer series (calyx of sepals) is usually green and leaf-like, and functions to protect the rest of the flower, especially the bud.[68][69] The inner series (corolla of petals) is, in general, white or brightly colored, is more delicate in structure, and attracts pollinators by colour, scent, and nectar.[70][71]

Most flowers are

Monoecious plants have separate male and female flowers on the same plant; these are often wind-pollinated,[73] as in maize,[74] but include some insect-pollinated plants such as Cucurbita squashes.[75][76]

Fertilisation and embryogenesis

Double fertilization requires two sperm cells to fertilise cells in the ovule. A pollen grain sticks to the stigma at the top of the pistil, germinates, and grows a long pollen tube.A haploid generative cell travels down the tube behind the tube nucleus. The generative cell divides by mitosis to produce two haploid (n) sperm cells. The pollen tube grows from the stigma, down the style and into the ovary. When it reaches the micropyle of the ovule, it digests its way into one of the synergids, releasing its contents including the sperm cells. The synergid that the cells were released into degenerates; one sperm makes its way to fertilise the egg cell, producing a diploid (2n) zygote. The second sperm cell fuses with both central cell nuclei, producing a triploid (3n) cell. The zygote develops into an embryo; the triploid cell develops into the endosperm, the embryo's food supply. The ovary develops into a fruit. and each ovule into a seed.[77]

Fruit and seed

The fruit of the horse chestnut tree, showing the large seed inside the fruit, which is dehiscing or splitting open
.

As the embryo and endosperm develop, the wall of the embryo sac enlarges and combines with the

pericarp, whose form is closely associated with type of seed dispersal system.[78]

Other parts of the flower often contribute to forming the fruit. For example, in the apple, the hypanthium forms the edible flesh, surrounding the ovaries which form the tough cases around the seeds.[79]

Apomixis, setting seed without fertilization, is found naturally in about 2.2% of angiosperm genera.[80] Some angiosperms, including many citrus varieties, are able to produce fruits through a type of apomixis called nucellar embryony.[81]

Uses

sugar cane, sorghum). The Fabaceae, or legume family, comes in second place. Also of high importance are the Solanaceae, or nightshade family (including potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers); the Cucurbitaceae, or gourd family (including pumpkins and melons); the Brassicaceae, or mustard plant family (including rapeseed and the many varieties of the cabbage species Brassica oleracea); and the Apiaceae, or parsley family. Many of our fruits come from the Rutaceae, or rue family, including oranges, lemons, and grapefruits, and the Rosaceae, or rose family which provides apples, pears, cherries, apricots, and plums.[82][83] Flowering plants provide materials in the form of wood, paper, fibers such as cotton, flax, and hemp, medicines such as digoxin and opioids, and decorative and landscaping plants. Coffee and hot chocolate are beverages from flowering plants.[84] Both real and fictitious plants play a wide variety of roles in literature and film.[85] Flowers are the subjects of many poems by poets such as William Blake, Robert Frost, and Rabindranath Tagore.[86]

References

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Bibliography

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