BOT1501
EXAM PACK
2023
QUESTIONS WITH
ANSWERS
,BOT1501
EXAM PACK
2023
LATEST QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
,BOT1501 Plant Structure: Cytology, Morphology and Anatomy
UNIT 1: PLANTS
Plants are neither fungi nor bacteria, though fungi and bacteria have some
plant-like features.
However, plants are defined as organisms composed of many cells, have
cellulose-rich cell walls, have chlorophyll and are photosynthetic (or, if non-
photosynthetic, originated from photosynthetic ancestors), and are adapted in
many ways to life on land.
One example of a plant adapted to conditions on land is a multicellular
embryo, which refers to a young stage that develops from a fertilised egg
within a mother plant’s tissues.
Plants are known as embryophytes, solely because all groups of land-adapted
plants have such embryos.
Modern groups of embryophytes include mosses and other simple plants
known as bryophytes, club mosses – lycophytes, ferns and fern relatives –
pteridophytes, seed-bearing gymnosperms such as trees, and flowering
plants – angiosperms.
Plants have a relationship to fungi and bacteria that is either positive or
negative.
In nature, about 80% to 90% of plants live in close association with fungi that
help them to obtain essential nutrients from soil.
Notably, the first plants to become stabilised on land did so with great help
from fungi.
Other fungi, like bacteria, are known as pathogens because they infect plants
and cause disease.
Plants are one of the organisms that is playing a huge role in maintaining the
chemistry of the earth's atmosphere. Plants provide food for humans and
oxygen in the earth's atmosphere.
Some of the oxygen produced by plants like algae and bacteria is convected
into ozone by soler radiation in the atmosphere.
There would be no life without ozone layer because it protects the earth's
surface against harmful ultraviolet radiation
Briefly explain why it is so difficult to define plant(s):
Plants share some of the most basic features, for example with fungi, which are
immobile and their cells are enclosed by organic walls. Also, many bacteria are
photosynthetic, but those microscopic organisms have a much simpler structure than
plants do.
, BOT1501 Plant Structure: Cytology, Morphology and Anatomy
Three elements that disqualify dodders from being
regarded as plants:
Dodders have almost no chlorophyll; mature dodders are not rooted in the ground;
dodders consist of leafless stems and lastly, dodders have no roots.
The four criteria used to define plants:
1. Plants have cellulose-rich walls,
2. Plants are multicellular,
3. Plants usually have chlorophyll and are photosynthetic,
4. and plants are adapted to life on land, or if aquatic, they descended from
plants that were adapted to life on land.
The advantages of using scientific names over common names:
➢ Ensure accuracy and specificity
➢ Enable people from different parts of the world to engage about plant species with
ease
➢ Prevent any ambiguity or confusion.
Plants and their scientific names:
Plants scientific names were established so that it would be easy to converse with
people from other regions to ensure accuracy and specifity needed for the
communication in different fields.
The simple rules that need to be followed when writing a scientific
name:
Genus (plural, genera) of which the first letter always is a capital letter.
Both parts of a scientific name either are underlined or italicised.
Common Name Scientific Name
Sweet thorn Acacia karroo
Cacao plant Theobroma cacao
Coconut Cocos nucifera
Apple Malus Domestica
Cucumber Cucumis Koenigii
Orange Citrus Aurantium
Tomato Lycopersican Esculentum