Thursday, March 31, 2011

Botany Review Questions for the 3rd Exam

Evolution:

1. How do biologists define evolution?

2. What is a population?

3. What islands were important to Charles Darwin's thinking on evolution?

4. Biogeography is how living things are distributed around the world. How was Darwin surprised by the the biogeography he observed on his trip around the world?

5. While fossils support the theory of evolution, we can't rely on the fossil record ever being complete. Why?

6. How does the existence of fossils support the theory of evolution?

7. How did LaMarck explain inheritance?

8. What was the hypothesis of catastrophism?

9. While the theory of evolution does not indicate humans came from chimps, it does indicate a _________________________ between chimps and humans.

10. Upon what observations did Darwin base his theory of evolution by natural selection?

11. What is adaptive radiation, and give an example of adaptive radiation in plants.

12. How has evidence from molecular biology supported the theory of evolution?

13. What is sympatric speciation, and how is it different from allopatric speciation?



Fungi Questions

1. How are fungi classified?

2. What role do fungi play typically in their habitat?

3. How are fungi different from plants?

4. How do fungi feed?

5. What does heterokaryotic mean?

6. How do fungi spread out in their habitat?

7. The body of a fungus is a thread like structure called a ____

8. A mass of the answer in question 7 is call a ____

9. A lichen is made of a ____ and a ____. What is the ecological role of lichens?

Land Plants, Mosses and Ferns

1. Liverworts and mosses both have a dominant ________ generation

2. What are three ways plants are adapted to life on land?

3. What organisms are believed to be the ancestors of land plants?

4. Sporophytes do what kind of cell division to make spores?

5. Are gametophytes are haploid or diploid?

6. Why are most mosses small?

7. What do ferns have that is missing in mosses and liverworts?

8. Why are horsetails also called scouring rushes?

9. The dominannt generation in the ferns is the ____ generation

10. Under the leaves one can find ____ in ferns

Gymnosperms

1. What advancement is seen in the gymnosperms compared to the ferns?

2. How are Gingkos and cycads different from conifers?

3. What is in a male cone? What is in a female cone?

4. How are confirs adapted to cold dry climates?

5. What does it mean if a plant is monecious?

6. Ephedra belongs to what division of plants?

7. What is the male gametophyte in the conifers?

Angiosperms

1. What is the function of these parts of the flower?
petals
sepals
anther
ovary
stigma
style

2. Other than the flower, what other advantage do the flowering plants have over the gymnosperms?

3. What is the function of fruit?

4. How is an imperfect flower different from a perfect flower? How is a complete flower different from an incomplete flower?

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Wildflower hotline up and running

The Theodore Payne Foundation's weekly postings of where, and which wildflowers are blooming is up and running. Click here to go to the hotline webpage.

I am hopeful this will be a good year for a wildflower bloom.

Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve 2010
Sand Verbena and Desert Sunflower, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park 2010
Datura, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, 2010