Lesson 2 | Seedless Plants
Student Labs and Activities
Page
Appropriate For:
Launch Lab
27
all students
Content Vocabulary ELL
28
all students
Lesson Outline ELL
29
all students
Content Practice A
31
AL
AL
AL
Content Practice B
32
AL
OL
BL
School to Home
33
Key Concept Builders
34
Enrichment
38
Challenge
39
Skill Practice
40
all students
AL
AL
AL
all students
AL
AL
BL
all students
Assessment
Lesson Quiz A
42
AL
AL
AL
Lesson Quiz B
43
AL
OL
BL
Teacher Support
Answers (with Lesson Outlines)
AL Approaching Level
T4
OL On Level
BL Beyond Level
ELL English-Language Learner
Teacher evaluation will determine which activities to use or modify to meet any ELL student’s proficiency level.
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Plant Diversity
Name
Date
Launch Lab
Class
LESSON 2: 20 minutes
Which holds more water?
Peat moss is the common name of approximately 300 different types of mosses. The
partially decomposed remains of these moss plants form peat moss. Some potting soils
contain peat moss.
Procedure
1. Read and complete a lab safety form.
2. Fill a 250-mL beaker with potting
soil to about 3 cm from the top.
3. In a tub, mix equal parts peat moss
and potting soil. Fill a second 250-mL
beaker to the same level with this
mixture.
4. Pour 30 mL of water into each beaker.
Examine the beakers after 5 minutes
and record your observations in the
Data and Observations section below.
5. After another 5 minutes, place each
beaker on its side in an aluminum
pie pan. Record your observations.
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Data and Observations
Think About This
1. How quickly did each soil mixture absorb the water?
2. What happened when you placed the beakers on their sides in the pie pans?
3.
Key Concept Why do you think peat moss is added to potting soil? How might
this benefit plants?
Plant Diversity
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Name
Content Vocabulary
Date
Class
LESSON 2
Seedless Plants
Directions: Explain the relationship between the terms in each pair on the lines provided. Use complete sentences.
1. diffusion; osmosis
2. frond; leaf
28
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3. root; rhizoid
Plant Diversity
Name
Date
Class
Lesson Outline
LESSON 2
Seedless Plants
A. Nonvascular Seedless Plants
1. Nonvascular seedless plants are often referred to as
.
a. Bryophytes are usually small, lack
tissue, and live in
environments.
b. Materials move in bryophytes by diffusion or
from
cell to cell.
c. Bryophytes do not have roots, stems, or
.
d. Bryophytes have rootlike structures called
, which
anchor it to a surface.
e. Reproduction in bryophytes requires water and occurs
by
.
f. Mosses, liverworts, and
are bryophytes.
2. The most common bryophytes,
live in shady, damp
environments and can survive long periods of
.
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
a. Mosses have leaflike structures that grow on a stemlike structure called
a(n)
.
b. Mosses have
rhizoids.
c. Mosses are often the
plants to grow in barren areas
or after a natural disturbance such as a fire or a mudslide.
d. Mosses can retain large amounts of
, which makes
moss a useful additive for potting soil.
3.
look like the flattened lobes of a liver.
a. The
of liverworts are unicellular.
b. The two common forms of liverworts are
and
thallose liverworts.
4.
are named for their long, hornlike reproductive structures.
a. Hornworts reproduce by
b. Each photosynthetic cell in a hornwort has only one
Plant Diversity
.
.
29
Name
Date
Class
Lesson Outline continued
B. Vascular Seedless Plants
1. Vascular plants make up more than
percent of plant
species.
2. Unlike nonvascular plants, vascular plants contain vascular tissue in their
, roots, and leaves.
3.
plants contain tubelike structures that transport water
and nutrients, which allows these plants to grow
nonvascular plants.
4.
than
fuels come from the remains of ancient vascular
seedless plants.
5. The
, or leaves of ferns, make up most of a fern.
a. Ferns grow in many
, including dry, rocky cliffs and
damp, swampy areas.
b. People grow ferns in their homes and gardens and sometimes eat their young
fronds, called
.
6. Unlike mosses,
have roots, stems, and leaves.
a. Club mosses are small plants, whose stems grow along the
.
b. The fine powdery spores of club mosses are
been used to make
7.
and have
.
have small leaves that grow in circles around the stems.
a. Horsetail stems are hollow and the tissue contains
,a
mineral found in sand, that makes them abrasive.
b. Horsetails were once used to scrub
30
.
Plant Diversity
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
and whose leaves are
Name
Date
Class
Content Practice A
LESSON 2
Seedless Plants
Directions: Label this diagram by writing the correct term from the word bank on the line. Some terms may not
be used.
bryophytes
rhizoids
spores
vascular tissue
1.
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Directions: On each line, write the term from the word bank that correctly completes each sentence. Some terms
may be used more than once or not at all.
bryophytes
ferns
mosses
nonvascular
rhizoids
spores
vascular
vascular tissue
osmosis
2. A term used by scientists to describe nonvascular seedless plants such as the one shown
in the drawing is
.
3. Nonvascular seedless plants move materials from cell to cell by diffusion
and
.
4. Hornworts have hornlike reproductive structures that
produce
.
5. Over 90 percent of all plant species are
6. Vascular seedless plants, such as
plants.
, are usually larger than
nonvascular seedless plants.
7. One difference between
and club mosses is that club
mosses have roots, stems, and leaves.
Plant Diversity
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Name
Date
Class
Content Practice B
LESSON 2
Seedless Plants
Directions: Complete the diagram with the correct terms in the space provided. Some answers have been
provided for you.
club mosses
ferns
hornworts
horsetails
liverworts
mosses
nonvascular
vascular
Seedless Plants
nonvascular
horsetails
1. Describe two similar features of vascular and nonvascular seedless plants.
2. What is the major difference between vascular seedless plants and nonvascular seedless
plants?
3. What are bryophytes?
4. Explain why nonvascular seedless plants usually are found in moist environments.
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Plant Diversity
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Directions: Answer each question or respond to each statement on the lines provided.
Name
Date
School to Home
Class
LESSON 2
Seedless Plants
Did you know?
Ferns once dominated Earth’s landscape. They grew to enormous sizes compared to
the ferns that decorate our homes today. With the help of vascular tissue, ancient
ferns often grew to the size of trees.
For this activity, you will need two shallow bowls, a kitchen sponge, and a dropper. You will
use the dropper to model transport of water through a vascular plant. You will use the
sponge to model transport of water through a nonvascular plant.
Fill both bowls with 2.5 to 5 centimeters of drinking water. Place the sponge in one bowl so
that it is on its short edge, with the length of the sponge rising out of the bowl. Observe
the sponge for several minutes. Then place the end of the dropper in the other bowl and
squeeze the water up into the dropper.
1. The water traveled up the sponge by diffusion. How far up the length of the sponge did
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
it travel?
2. How far up the length of the dropper did water travel?
3. How quickly did the water travel through the sponge compared to the speed at which
it traveled through the dropper?
4. Relate your results to contrast the efficiency of moving water through plants by
diffusion with the efficiency of moving it through vascular tissues. Determine how this
would affect the maximum size of a plant.
Plant Diversity
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Name
Date
Class
Key Concept Builder
LESSON 2
Seedless Plants
Key Concept How are nonvascular and vascular seedless plants alike, and how are they
different?
Directions: Answer each question or respond to each statement in the space provided.
1. Why are mosses important to ecosystems?
4. List five characteristics
of nonvascular seedless
plants.
•
Nonvascular
Seedless Plants
(bryophytes)
2. Name one characteristic of a liverwort’s
rhizoids.
•
•
•
3. What is unusual about a hornwort’s
photosynthetic cells?
8. List two characteristics
of vascular seedless
plants.
•
6. Name one characteristic of club mosses.
•
Vascular
Seedless Plants
7. Name one characteristic of a horsetail’s stem.
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Plant Diversity
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5. In what type of habitat would you find a fern?
•
Name
Date
Class
Key Concept Builder
LESSON 2
Seedless Plants
Key Concept How are nonvascular and vascular seedless plants alike, and how are they
different?
Directions: Circle the term in parentheses that correctly completes each sentence.
1. Much of the fossil fuels we use today came from the remains of ancient
(vascular, nonvascular) plants.
2. About 90 percent of all plant species are (vascular, nonvascular) plants.
3. Bryophytes is a term scientists use to refer to (vascular, nonvascular) plants.
4. (Mosses, Ferns) are one of the most common nonvascular plants.
5. Rhizoids are rootlike structures that are part of (vascular, nonvascular) plants.
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
6. The first plants to grow after a natural disaster usually are (mosses, ferns).
7. Leafy liverwort and hornworts are examples of a (vascular, nonvascular) plant.
8. Vascular plants are plants that contain (rhizoid, tubelike) structures that transport water.
9. In ancient times (vascular, nonvascular) seedless plants grew as tall as trees.
10. (Club mosses, Hornworts) are vascular plants that are usually less than 50 cm tall.
11. (Vascular, Nonvascular) plants usually live in moist environments.
Plant Diversity
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Name
Date
Class
Key Concept Builder
LESSON 2
Seedless Plants
Key Concept How are nonvascular and vascular seedless plants alike, and how are they
different?
Directions: On the line before each description, write the letter of the term that matches it correctly. Some terms
may be used more than once or not at all.
Vascular Plants
1. They were once used for scrubbing pots.
A. club mosses
2. The spores are quite flammable.
B. ferns
3. They have scalelike leaves.
C. hornworts
4. They range in size from a few centimeters to
several meters tall.
5. They spread rapidly and can be a garden
D. horsetails
E. liverworts
F. mosses
nuisance.
6. They are often used as houseplants.
Nonvascular Plants
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7. Each photosynthetic cell has only one
chloroplast.
8. They are usually the first plants to grow in
barren areas.
9. They were once used to treat liver diseases.
10. They can be found growing in sidewalk cracks.
11. They have unicellular rhizoids.
12. They are used as peat moss in potting soil.
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Plant Diversity
Name
Date
Class
Key Concept Builder
LESSON 2
Seedless Plants
Key Concept How are nonvascular and vascular seedless plants alike, and how are they
different?
Directions: Complete the Venn Diagram by writing the characteristics of nonvascular and vascular plants in the
correct circles.
Nonvascular Plants
Vascular Plants
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Both
Directions: Answer each question on the lines provided.
1. What is the function of rhizoids, and in which type of plant are they found?
2. How do mosses and club mosses differ?
3. Why are vascular seedless plants generally larger than nonvascular seedless plants?
Plant Diversity
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Name
Date
Class
Enrichment
LESSON 2
When a Moss Is Not a Moss
What do we know about mosses? They
are small, low-growing green plants that are
nonvascular and grow in dimly lit, swampy
places. They don’t have stems, roots, or
leaves, although they have structures that
resemble roots, stems, and leaves. They do
not have seeds or flowers. There are a variety
of plants and other plantlike organisms that
share few of these characteristics and habits,
which nevertheless have been mistakenly
identified in their common names as mosses.
Moss Rose (Portulaca grandiflora)
Irish Moss (Sagina subulata)
This plant forms a soft ground cover that
thrives in poor soil, but it doesn’t favor a
soggy soil. It is almost as rugged as grass,
and it often spreads to cover areas where
green groundcover is desirable year-round.
In spring, this matlike groundcover is
studded with tiny, white flowers.
Also called Irish moss is a slimy red
algae, Chondrus crispus, that forms in the
intertidal waters of the North Atlantic in
Europe and North America. This organism
Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides)
This is an unusual flowering plant
that doesn’t have roots. Spanish moss is an
epiphyte—a plant that lives on another plant,
but is not a parasite. Spanish moss is often
seen hanging from the branches of a cypress
tree above a salt marsh. Its gray-green leaves
are narrow and filamentous. The plant has
numerous branches and forms thick, hanging
masses that may reach 6 m. Its flowers are
small and lightly fragrant.
Reindeer Moss (Cladonia spp.)
This is an organism that, like the red
algae Irish moss, is neither a moss nor a
plant. Reindeer moss is a lichen. A lichen is
a symbiosis of a photosynthetic algae and a
fungus. It is also edible. Native Americans
once used this lichen as a source of food
when times were hard because it is high
in carbohydrates and vitamins A and B—
although the Native Americans didn’t know
that. It actually got its common name for
being a source of food for reindeer. This
lichen is wide-ranging and grows from
Nova Scotia to Florida and across the
Southern states.
Applying Critical-Thinking Skills
Directions: Answer each question.
1. Evaluate What are the benefits of using scientific names for organisms?
2. Generalize Considering all the characteristics of the organisms discussed in the article,
why do you think they are commonly called mosses?
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Plant Diversity
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Grandiflora means “big flower.” Mosses
don’t have flowers, so this isn’t a true moss.
Moss rose also has roots, stems, and leaves,
and thrives in hot, dry places. How did it
acquire the name of moss rose? Probably
because it is small and low-growing. It also
has thick, water-filled leaves that resemble
the “leaves” of some true mosses.
is not a moss, nor is it a plant. But it does
have great commercial value. It provides a
material that serves as a thickening agent.
It is the same material that makes ice cream
and yogurt creamy and smooth.
Name
Challenge
Date
Class
LESSON 2
Ferns
Ferns are vascular seedless plants that are commonly grown as houseplants or in gardens.
These plants are sold as houseplants or bedding plants in nearly all nurseries and garden
centers. You might even have one at home.
Fern leaves are called fronds, and young fronds are called fiddleheads. Ferns reproduce
using spores instead of seeds. Small spots or patches on the underside of fern fronds are
called sori (singular sorus) and contain spores. Only fertile fronds will have sori on them;
not all fronds have sori at any given time.
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Press Fern Parts and Make a Poster
With permission, collect two fern fronds that have visible sori on the back of the leaves.
Also collect some fiddleheads from the same plant.
Scrape off a few of the sori and put them aside in a paper envelope. Then make a plant
press for your fern fronds. You will need some heavy books and a stack of folded newspapers
large enough to place your fern fronds and fiddleheads on without any overlap.
Place a frond on several layers of paper, then cover the frond with several more layers of
paper. Place another frond on the stack, more paper, then the fiddleheads, and lastly, more
paper. Then place heavy books over the entire arrangement to press the fronds between the
layers of newspaper. Leave the press alone and don’t peek for at least 48 hours, and longer
is better. The newspaper will absorb excess moisture from the fern fronds.
After at least 48 hours, gently remove the fronds and fiddleheads from the press and
fasten them to white poster paper with glue or tape. Place one frond with the top side up
and the other frond with the back side up so the sori are visible. Label the fronds, give the
fern’s common name and its scientific name, and write a short, neatly lettered paragraph
about the fern and its habitat.
Next, glue or tape the fiddleheads to the poster paper and label them. Write a brief
explanation of what they are and where they are located on the plant.
Finally, on a separate piece of paper, crush the sori that you put aside with the eraser end
of a pencil. Spread some clear glue on the poster paper and sprinkle the spores over the glue.
Be sure to indicate that the spores came from the sori labeled on the fronds.
Present your poster to your class as an example of a seedless vascular plant.
Plant Diversity
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Name
Date
Skill Practice
Class
Compare and Contrast
LESSON 2: 20 minutes
How do differences in plant structures reflect
their environments?
Plants with the same structures can appear to be very different from each other. Often the
same structures serve different purposes, depending on the environment in which the plant
lives. You can compare and contrast the same structures on two different plants to learn
about their needs in different environments.
Materials
cactus plant
rain forest plant
Safety
Learn It
Comparing and contrasting allows you to learn more about things than observing
them separately. Noting the similarities and differences of these plants can help you learn
which features are adaptations to a specific environment.
Try It
1. Read and complete a lab safety form.
Take care touching and handling the cactus plant.
3. Compare and contrast the leaves of both plants. Describe the leaves of each plant in a
table. Hint: The spines of the cactus plant are modified leaves, while the green, thick
parts are stems.
4. Observe the pictures of the desert environment and the rain forest environment. Think
about how the leaves of both plants might have a different function in each environment.
Fill out the next row of the table with your thoughts and descriptions.
5. Compare and contrast the stems. Describe the stems of each plant in your table.
Cactus
Rain Forest Plant
Leaves
Stem
Function
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Plant Diversity
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2. Observe a cactus plant and a rain forest plant in your classroom.
Name
Date
Class
Skill Practice continued
6. Think about how the stems of both plants might have a different function in each
environment. Fill out the next row of the table with your thoughts and descriptions.
Apply It
7. Describe which parts of each plant capture energy from sunlight.
8. Analyze how the availability of sunlight in each environment might affect the size
and number of light-capturing structures on both plants.
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9. Infer how both plants store water differently based on the differences in their structures.
10.
Key Concept Which plant structures were similar in both environments?
Explain why these structures were so similar.
Plant Diversity
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