vascular plants -
These
are plants with tissues specialized for conduction and support. This
means that they have true roots, stems and leaves.
nonvascular plants -
Nonvascular plants are
the simplest of all land dwelling plants. Like their closest
ancestors, the green algae, they lack an internal means for water
transportation. They also do not produce seeds or flowers. They
generally only reach a height of one to two centimeters, because
they lack the woody tissue necessary for support on land.
Photosynthesis
-
is the process by which plants, some
bacteria, and some protistans use the energy from sunlight to
produce sugar, which
cellular respiration
converts into
ATP,
the "fuel" used by all living things. The conversion of unusable
sunlight energy into usable chemical energy, is associated with the
actions of the green pigment
chlorophyll.
Most of the time, the photosynthetic process uses water and releases
the oxygen that we absolutely must have to stay alive. Oh yes, we
need the food as well! We can write the overall reaction of this
process as:
6H2O + 6CO2
----------> C6H12O6+ 6O2
chlorophyll -
is a green
photosynthetic pigment found in
plants,
algae,
and
cyanobacteria. Its name is derived from
ancient
Greek: chloros =
green
and phyllon =
leaf.
Chlorophyll absorbs mostly in the blue and to
a lesser extent red portions of the
electromagnetic spectrum, thus its intense
green color.
chloroplast
-
Chloroplasts are specialized organelles found in all
higher plant cells. These organelles contain the plant cell's
chlorophyll, hence provide the green color. They have a double outer
membrane. Within the stroma are other membrane structures - the
thylakoids and grana (singular = granum) where photosynthesis takes
place.
stomata
- Plant leaves
have stomata, openings that allow carbon dioxide to enter, which is
used for photosynthesis. Stomata have central openings surrounded by
two photosynthetic guard cells. Usually stomata are open during the
day and closed at night, but they can close if the leaf begins to
dehydrate. Guard cells change the shape of the opening by changing
their own shape.
cell wall
-
One of the most important distinguishing features of plant cells is
the presence of a cell wall. The relative rigidity of the cell wall
renders plants sedentary, unlike animals, whose lack of this type of
structure allows their cells more flexibility, which is necessary
for locomotion. The plant cell wall serves a variety of functions.
Along with protecting the intracellular contents, the structure
bestows rigidity to the plant, provides a porous medium for the
circulation and distribution of water, minerals, and other
nutrients, and houses specialized molecules that regulate growth and
protect the plant from disease.
cell membrane
- A component of every
biological cell, the selectively permeable
cell membrane (or plasma membrane or plasmalemma)
is a thin and structured
bilayer of
phospholipid and
protein
molecules that envelopes the
cell. It
separates a cell's interior from its surroundings and controls what
moves in and out. Cell surface membranes often contain
receptor proteins and
cell adhesion proteins. There are also
other proteins with a variety of functions. These membrane proteins
are important for the regulation of cell behavior and the
organization of cells in tissues.
vacuoles
- The term
means "empty space". But in the cell they are many membrane bound
sacs with little or no inner structure. Plant cells have very large
distinct vacuoles. In fact this organelles often dominates the
inside if the plant cell crowding all other organelles toward the
cell wall. The membrane surrounding the plant cell vacuole is called
the tonoplast. This a very active, dynamic membrane.
mitochondrion -
In
cell biology, a mitochondrion (from
Greek mitos thread + khondrion
granule) is an
organelle found in most
eukaryotic
cells, including those of
plants,
animals,
fungi,
and
protists. A few cells, such as the
trypanosome
protozoan, have a single large mitochondrion, but usually a cell
has hundreds or thousands of mitochondria.
nucleus
- The cell nucleus is a
remarkable organelle because it forms the package for our genes and
their controlling factors. It functions to:
Store
genes on chromosomes
Organize genes into
chromosomes
to allow cell division.
Transport regulatory factors & gene products via
nuclear pores
Produce messages (
messenger Ribonucleic acid or mRNA) that code for proteins
Produce
ribosomes in the
nucleolus
Organize the
uncoiling of DNA to replicate key genes
cytoplasm
- is a homogeneous,
generally clear jelly-like material that fills
cells. The cytoplasm consists of
cytosol and the cellular
organelles, except the
nucleus. The cytosol is made up of water, salts, organic
molecules and many
enzymes that catalyze reactions. The cytoplasm plays an
important role in a cell, serving as a "molecular soup" in which the
organelles are suspended and held together by a fatty membrane. It
is found within the plasma membrane of a cell and surrounds the
nuclear envelope and the cytoplasmic organelles
sĭs)
, process in which green plants utilize the energy of sunlight to
manufacture carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water in the presence of
chlorophyll. Some of the plants that lack chlorophyll, e.g., the
Indian pipe, secure their nutrients from organic material, as do
animals, and a few bacteria manufacture their own carbohydrates with
hydrogen and energy obtained from inorganic compounds (e.g., hydrogen
sulfide) in a process called
chemosynthesis. However, the vast majority of plants contain
chlorophyll–concentrated, in the higher land plants, in the leaves.
Next 
Finally They will learn that Plants make their own food.
They will be able to describe the process of photosynthesis.
Mitochondrion
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