BIO 15L:  Extra Credit on Plant Classification (5 points) Due before Spring Break

Use the following dichotomous key to classify live plants available in a garden shop and/or the campus arboretum.  The key will help you to place a plant in one of the four more common divisions or phyla (botanists often use the term division instead of phylum) of plants.  While there are 12 plant divisions,  most that you will encounter are found in the four divisions described.

ú You will need to identify at least 5 different plants find representatives of at least 3 of the 4 divisions/phyla.

ú For each plant list the common name, the scientific name, the domain, kingdom, division/phylum.

ú Include a picture of yourself with your favorite one of the plants.

Step 1:  Does the plant lack a system of tubes (vessels) conducting water and food and serving as supports for stems and leaves, and thus, have small leaves, grow in moist places, and grow close to the ground (less than one cm high)?

1a.  If yes, belongs to the Division Bryophyta, comprising mostly mosses.

1b.  If no, go to Step 2.

Step 2:  Does the plant have feather-shaped leaves with one tough main axis and many flat horizontal projections getting shorter near the tip of the leaf, spores on the underside of the leaf, and no seeds?

2a.  If yes, then it belongs to the Division Filicophyta, comprising mostly ferns.

   2b.  If no, then go to Step 3.

Step 3:  Does the plant have woody stems, is the green part of the plant primarily in needles (long, thin projections) or scales (small, flattened projections without a visible vessel in the main axis) and are the seeds formed naked on cones?

3a.  If yes, then it belongs to the Division Coniferophyta, comprising mostly evergreen or conifer trees.

3b.  If no, and it forms its seeds in the ovary of a flower, then it belongs to the Division Anthophyta, comprising flowering plants.