14.1 Characteristics of Flowering Plants

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14.1 Characteristics ofFlowering Plants

• Origins and Adaptations

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• Fossils show that flowering plants, called
  angiosperms, first evolved about 130 million
  years ago.

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• Scientists infer that angiosperms evolved from a
  gymnosperm ancestor-both have vascular tissue and
  both produce pollen.

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• But unlike gymnosperms, angiosperms produce seeds
  within a flower.

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• Flowers contain the sex organs for an angiosperm.
  The male sex organs make pollen and the female
  sex organs make egg cells.

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• Some flowers, such as tulips, contain both male
  and female sex organs within one flower.

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• Other flowers, such as the squash blossoms, may
  contain either male or female sex organs.

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• Flowers have many adaptations for reproduction.

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• Plants with colorful and complex flowers usually
  depend on insects, bats, or hummingbirds to carry
  pollen from one flower to another.

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• Shape, scent, and color are flower adaptations
  that help plants attract specific pollen carriers.

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• A specific pollen carrier is more likely to take
  the pollen to another plant of the same species,
  increasing the chances of successful
  reproduction.

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• Plants that depend on wind to carry their pollen
  do not have this advantage.

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• Most angiosperms produce flowers grouped together
  in clusters.

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• These flower clusters vary greatly in size,
  shape, and the number of flowers they contain.

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• Other angiosperms, such as the daffodil, have
  only one single flower.

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• More than 235,000 species of angiosperms are
  found in the world today-from the equator to the
  poles, and from the oceans to the mountains

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• They come in different forms
• trees, shrubs, vines, herbs, and succulents,
  such as cacti.

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• Angiosperms range in size from tiny floating
  plants barely 1 mm long to enormous flowering
  trees over 100 m tall.

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End