In this week's lab we will begin looking at the terrestrial plants, those members of the Kingdom Plantae that are adapted to a life on land. The transition to a life on land was not an easy one for plants to make, for in many ways the terrestrial environment is much harsher than the aquatic habitat occupied by most of the algae. Problems to be overcome before plants could successfully colonize land included obtaining an adequate supply of water, preventing water loss from the plant body, providing support for the plant body in the absence of the buoyancy provided by water, withstanding wide fluctuations in environmental conditions, and carrying out the process of sexual reproduction in the absence of water. Many of the features of land plants can be more easily understood when considered as adaptations to overcome these problems.

Classification of Land Plants

The terrestrial plants are all multicellular, eukaryotic, autotrophic organisms that share the same photosynthetic pigments (chlorophylls aand b,carotenoids), store the excess carbohydrate produced by photosynthesis in the form of starch, and have cell walls composed of cellulose. The major groups of land plants are classified as separate divisions within the plant kingdom. Collectively, terrestrial plants include ten divisions and more than a quarter of a million species, as shown in the chart below:
 

In this week's lab, we will be examining the morphology and life cycles of representative members of the first four divisions of terrestrial plants. The links below will take you to review materials for the different parts of the lab.

Topics covered in this week's lab:

• Division Bryophyta: The Mosses and Liverworts
 
• Division Pterophyta: The True Ferns
 
• Divisions Psilotophyta and Sphenophyta: The Fern Allies
 

This page last updated: 09 Nov 1999