Please answer the following questions in an essay format. Question 1: Anthophyta (25 points)
Describe the evolution of flowering plants and why their origin and evolution were described by Darwin as “an abominable mystery”.
Include in your answer:
a. the characteristics that define flowering plants and a summary of their diversification from basal angiosperms to
mesangiosperms (magnolias, monocots and eudicots)
b. the evolution of flower and fruit, describing changes resulting in receptacle, sepals, petals, carpels and stamens
c. the life history of a flowering plant, such as the California Poppy, and the events leading to pollination and fertilization
d. a comparison of the flowers of the most diverse monocot and eudicot families, the Orchidaceae and the Asteraceae
Question 2: Water Movement (25 points)
Describe and discuss the transpiration stream in the plant body. Include in your answer:
a. a description of the paths that water takes entering the root and the roles of the root endodermis
b. a description of water and the principles involved in tension and the problem of cavitation and embolism and how this is
resolved
c. a description of the release of water and the absorption of carbon dioxide through stomata
d. a comparison of the “typical” leaf and the leaf of Bigpod Ceanothus and how this leaf increases photosynthetic surface area
while reducing leaf size and water loss through transpiration
Question 3: Solute Movement (25 points)
Describe and discuss the solute stream in the plant body. Include in your answer:
a. a description of the cells and tissues of the food production and food storage tissues of flowering plants and the cells
b. a description of the special association of sieve elements, companion cells and bundle sheath cells
c. a description of the biomolecules that are transported as food and nitrogen carriers
d. a description of how phloem conducts food from source to sink according to the pressure flow hypothesis including phloem
loading in a leaf, the passage of sucrose from palisade mesophyll to sieve element (including polymer trapping), the
flow through the phloem, and phloem unloading in a root
Question 4: Mineral Nutrients (25 points)
Describe the variety and roles of minerals essential to plants and how they are accessed from the soil. Include in your answer:
a. the different essential minerals and their uses by plants
b. a description of the four fundamental mineral groups
c. the nature of soil and the release of minerals
d. a description of root structure and how mycorrhizal symbioses increase root efficiencies in obtaining nutrients.
References
Immediately following the essay, two lines below the last line of your essay, list all sources used in writing your essay to answer the
question. Do not use in-text citations and do not use footnotes. Simply list your sources in this “References” section.
