Ferns & Flowering Plants

• At least some parts of any plant are green, caused by the presence of the pigment chlorophyll which absorbs energy from sunlight for the process of photosynthesis

• The plant kingdom includes organisms such as ferns and flowering plants

Ferns:

• Have leaves called fronds

• Do not produce flowers but instead reproduce by spores produced on the underside of fronds

Ferns

Ferns reproduce by spores found

Flowering plants:

• Reproduce sexually by means of flowers and seeds

• Seeds are produced inside the ovary found at the base of the flower

• Can be divided into two groups – monocotyledons and dicotyledons

Wheat plants are monocotyledons

Sunflowers are dicotyledons

How to distinguish between monocotyledons and dicotyledons:

Comparing monocots and dicots

1) FLOWERS

• Flowers from monocotyledons contain petals in multiples of 3

• Flowers from dicotyledons contain petals in multiples of 4 or 5

  
  

2) LEAVES

• Leaves from monocotyledons have parallel leaf veins

• Leaves from dicotyledons have reticulated leaf veins (meaning that they are all interconnected and form a web-like network throughout the leaf)

Exam Tip

Identification of monocotyledons and dicotyledons comes up fairly frequently in the multiple choice paper and so it is worth learning the two differences between their flowers and leaves.