What makes angiosperms so successful

Unlike gymnosperms such as conifers and cycads, angiosperm's seeds are found in a flower. Angiosperm eggs are fertilized and develop into a seed in an ovary that is usually in a flower. What is the role of a flower? The primary purpose of a flower is reproduction. Since the flowers are the reproductive organs of plant, they mediate the joining of the sperm, contained within pollen, to the ovules — contained in the ovary.

Pollination is the movement of pollen from the anthers to the stigma. Is an apple a monocot or dicot? The apple is a dicot, meaning it has two cotyledons or seed leaves. Some flowering plants are monocots and have only one seed leaf or cotyledon.

Corn is a monocot. The embryo can be seen in the area where the seed comes to a point. When did angiosperms become dominant? Fossil evidence indicates that flowering plants first appeared in the Lower Cretaceous, about million years ago, and were rapidly diversifying by the Middle Cretaceous, about million years ago. Do Ferns have seeds? Ferns belong to an ancient group of plants that developed before flowering plants, and they do not produce flowers and therefore do not produce seed.

The fruit of b the Piper nigrumplant is black pepper, the main product that was traded along spice routes. Notice the small, unobtrusive, clustered flowers. The red seeds of d a magnolia tree, characteristic of the final stage, are just starting to appear. The Magnoliidae are represented by the magnolias: tall trees bearing large, fragrant flowers that have many parts and are considered archaic Figure 4d.

Laurel trees produce fragrant leaves and small, inconspicuous flowers. The Laurales grow mostly in warmer climates and are small trees and shrubs. Familiar plants in this group include the bay laurel, cinnamon, spice bush Figure 4a , and avocado tree.

The Nymphaeales are comprised of the water lilies, lotus Figure 4c , and similar plants; all species thrive in freshwater biomes, and have leaves that float on the water surface or grow underwater. Water lilies are particularly prized by gardeners, and have graced ponds and pools for thousands of years. The Piperales are a group of herbs, shrubs, and small trees that grow in the tropical climates.

They have small flowers without petals that are tightly arranged in long spikes. Many species are the source of prized fragrance or spices, for example the berries of Piper nigrum Figure 4b are the familiar black peppercorns that are used to flavor many dishes.

Monocots Plants in the monocot group are primarily identified as such by the presence of a single cotyledon in the seedling. Other anatomical features shared by monocots include veins that run parallel to the length of the leaves, and flower parts that are arranged in a three- or six-fold symmetry. True woody tissue is rarely found in monocots. In palm trees, vascular and parenchyma tissues produced by the primary and secondary thickening meristems form the trunk.

The pollen from the first angiosperms was monosulcate, containing a single furrow or pore through the outer layer. This feature is still seen in the modern monocots. Vascular tissue of the stem is not arranged in any particular pattern. The root system is mostly adventitious and unusually positioned, with no major tap root. The monocots include familiar plants such as the true lilies which are at the origin of their alternate name of Liliopsida , orchids, grasses, and palms.

Many important crops are monocots, such as rice and other cereals, corn, sugar cane, and tropical fruits like bananas and pineapples Figure 5. Figure 5. Eudicots, or true dicots, are characterized by the presence of two cotyledons in the developing shoot.

Veins form a network in leaves, and flower parts come in four, five, or many whorls. Vascular tissue forms a ring in the stem; in monocots, vascular tissue is scattered in the stem. Eudicots can be herbaceous like grasses , or produce woody tissues.

Most eudicots produce pollen that is trisulcate or triporate, with three furrows or pores. The root system is usually anchored by one main root developed from the embryonic radicle. Eudicots comprise two-thirds of all flowering plants. The major differences between monocots and eudicots are summarized in Table 1.

Many species exhibit characteristics that belong to either group; as such, the classification of a plant as a monocot or a eudicot is not always clearly evident. Angiosperms are the dominant form of plant life in most terrestrial ecosystems, comprising about 90 percent of all plant species.

Most crops and ornamental plants are angiosperms. Their success comes from two innovative structures that protect reproduction from variability in the environment: the flower and the fruit.

Flowers were derived from modified leaves. Animals Encyclopedia. Endangered Animals. Plants Encyclopedia. Endangered Plants. Breaking News.

DNA deoxyribonucleic acid : molecular instructions that guide how all living things develop and function Evolutionary tree: or phylogenetic tree a branching structure that shows the evolutionary relationships between different groups of organisms Gymnosperm: a seed-producing plant that doesn't package its seeds within fruits or flowers This Antarctic Pearlwort doesn't look so tough here, but this plant can live in a place that gets as cold as degrees Celsius.

That's colder than degrees Fahrenheit. Image by Liam Quinn. Life is competitive. All of the living things you see around you are the result of their ancestors, who successfully competed for food, water and space for millions of years.

Compared to gymnosperms needle-covered plants like pine trees , angiosperms just about rule the world. Angiosperms can live in the blistering desert or the frigid Antarctic, and in evolutionary terms, they are still young. Where did these angiosperms come from and how did they spread from a new group of species to one of the most widespread and diverse groups of living things in the world?

Flash forward 40 million years and BAM! Instead, we have the big, leafy relatives of our flowering plants: trees that look more like Oaks or Maples. This is an example of a simple evolutionary tree. Click for more information. Okay, I know that 40 million years sounds like a very long time, but it often takes s of millions of years for life on earth to change noticeably. For angiosperms, it took less than 50 million years to kick gymnosperms off their prickly throne and become one of the most common forms of life around.

Living things depend on food for just about everything. Plants need food to grow and to make the seeds that will one day become a whole new plant. Unlike animals though, plants can photosynthesize, or make their own food sugar using sunlight and carbon dioxide. Plants have openings called stomata that let in carbon dioxide. Here, the stomata are the pores holes surrounded by bright green guard cells. Angiosperms have a higher number of stomata and veins per each section of plant tissue.

Image by AioftheStorm.