The document summarizes the key characteristics of the four main types of plants - mosses, ferns, cone-bearing plants, and flowering plants. It provides examples of each type, such as how mosses reproduce via spores contained in spore capsules and need moist environments, while flowering plants like dogwood produce seeds inside fruit. The document also discusses how clover fixes nitrogen to benefit nearby plants and the life cycle of pine trees involving male and female cones.

1. Plant Field Study
Hornsby Middle School
7th Grade Life Science
May 2, 2013

2. What are the
4 types of
plants?
oMosses
oFerns
oCone-bearing
oFlowering

3. Non-Examples of Plants
Lichens, algae, fungi

4. Fringe Tree
Native Species Frilly, tubular flowers;
opposite branches

5. Angiosperms
oVascular, flowering plants
oSeeds are encased in the
ovary of the plant
oFruit is ripened ovary
Examples:
•Dogwood
•Fringe Tree
•Grasses
•Clover

6. Nitrogen
Fixation
Plants need nutrients from
nitrogen in the air. Grasses
cannot convert nitrogen to
usable nitrate.
Clover has bacteria in the
roots that fix nitrogen to
fertilize the plants around it.

7. Gymnosperms
Gymno=naked Sperm=seed
oVascular, seed-bearing plant.
oSeeds are bare and contained in a cone.
oExample: pine trees

8. The female pine cone is the large,
woody looking cone you usually
think of when you picture a cone. It
contains the egg that is fertilized to
form the seed.
The male cone is small
and wormy looking. It
contains the pollen that
falls into the female
cone.
Pine seeds

9. Ferns
oVascular (have veins)
oNon-seed bearing
oReproduce by Spores
oSpores located on back of
leaves

10. Mosses
o Non-vascular—have no
veins to carry water and
food
o Grow close to the ground
o Need moist, cool place to
grow
o Reproduce by spores

11. Why does Moss usually grow on the
north side of a tree?
In the Northern Hemisphere, the sun travels along a southern path in the
sky, warming and drying the surfaces it touches.

12. Spore Capsule
Orange-yellow structure at
the end of stalk which
mosses put out that
contain the spores.