6th Grade Science

Chapter 11 Plants

Notes Section

11.2

San Rafael Falls, Ecuador

• What plants are seedless and nonvascular?• Seedless nonvascular plants include mosses,

liverworts, and hornworts.• What other characteristics do seedless

nonvascular plants have?• Seedless nonvascular plants produce spores

rather than seeds and have no vascular system.

Key Questions 1

 Hall of Mosses, Olympic National Park, Washington

Liverworts

Hornworts

• What are other characteristics of seedless nonvascular plants?

• Seedless nonvascular plants are usually only a few cells thick and no more than a few centimeters tall.

• What is a pioneer species?• Pioneer species are organisms that are the first

to grow in a new or disturbed area.

Key Questions 2

The Tadpole Galaxy

Moss Garden, Brevard, NC

Moss Chair

Dried Moss in Table Art

Moss Enclosure - Honesdale, PA

• What plants are seedless and vascular?• Seedless vascular plants include ferns, club

mosses, and horsetails. • What is an advantage of a plant with a vascular

system?• Vascular plants grow taller and can live farther

from water than nonvascular plants.

Key Questions 3

The Sombrero Galaxy

Hanging Ferns

Australian Tree Fern

Club Mosses

Horsetail Plant

• How are seedless nonvascular plants beneficial to the Earth?

• Seedless nonvascular plants help build new soil after fires, volcanic eruptions, or floods.

• What are coal deposits formed from?• Coal deposits are formed from ancient seedless

plants that were buried in water or mud.

Key Questions 4

Gardens of Heligan, England

Wall decorations of ferns and plants

Terramac Moss Carpet, Japan

Patrick Blanc has recently completed his project on the outside of the Athenaeum hotel in London. The facade of the 8 story building is composed of 12,000 plants instead of the harsh aesthetic created by regular concrete or brick. I can see how maintenance of such a project would be worrisome for some, but Blanc has it covered with a special “plastic-coated aluminum frame fastened to the wall and covered with synthetic felt into which plant roots can burrow [as well as] a custom irrigation system keeps the felt moist with a fertilizer solution modeled after the rainwater that trickles through forest canopies.”

Ireland - Cut peat stacked for drying at a peat bog.

Coal Mining Machinery - Finland

Coal Mining

1. Compare and contrast the characteristics of mosses and ferns.

2. Explain what fossil records tell about seedless plants that lived on Earth long ago.

3. Identify growing conditions in which you would expect to find pioneer plants such as mosses and liverworts.

4. Summarize the functions of vascular tissues.5. The electricity that you use everyday might be produced

by burning coal. What is the connection between electricity production and seedless vascular plants?

Questions Section 11.2