Early Land Plants
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY: NONVASCULAR PLANTS
AND NONSEED VASCULAR PLANTS is an excellent overview of the
characteristics of plants that developed on land on our planet. Read
this site first to get the "Big Picture".
Fun
with Lichens. Learn some basic things
about lichens and visit Lichen Land! Very
good for beginners and teachers.
http://www.lichen.com/sampler.html
- Beautiful
pictures of lichens and information
about them. Enjoy images
but
do not copy.
http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/bryolab/PEET/peet_bryos.html
- Bryophytes
(i.e., mosses, liverworts and hornworts.)
Primitive plants. A short description
with comments gives an overview.
http://www.hiddenforest.co.nz/bryophytes/index.htm
Beautiful photos of bryophytes. which include mosses,
liverworts, and hornworts. Click on the silver arrows to see more!
http://home.clara.net/adhale/bryos/index.htm
- The
Mosses of Wales. Simple information,
gorgeous pictures. Photo Gallery of
pictures with comments. Explore this
site!
http://www.uni-muenster.de/GeoPalaeontologie/Palaeo/Palbot/ewald.html#1
-
A History of Palaeozoic Forests by Hans Kerp.
Very nice introduction accessible to the general reader.
http://www.palaeos.com/Plants/default.htm
-
A History of Green Plants: Paleozoic Plants
Short descriptions of the development of the earliest land plants
with helpful diagrams and pictures. Yhis is an excellent site
with a lot of information about the evolution of life on earth.
http://amerfernsoc.org/
- Brief
Introduction to Ferns by the American
Fern Society. Go down the opening
page to Learn More About
Ferns or Fern Basics and click.
This page gives an excellent yet brief
description of the characteristics
of ferns and their interesting mode
of reproduction. As ferns were one
of the earliest land plants, I would
strongly urge you to read this page
as you plan for your bog and land
plants. Go down to the diagram
about fern reproduction.
-
- http://www.life.uiuc.edu/plantbio/cell/
The
Virtual Cell: Explore a
Plant Cell on this interactive web
site.
A Taste for Flowers Helped Beetles
Conquer the World A New York Times
article examines the relationship between
plants and plant eaters, concentrating
especially on beetles.
http://www.peabody.yale.edu/mural/
The Age of Reptiles
from the Yale Peabody Museum
of Natural History. This page shows
a mural about prehistoric life forms.
This mural starts with the Age of Fishes
(the Devonian) through the Carboniferous,
Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic and Cretaceous. Click on the panels to learn
more. Commentary
is clear and accessible for the general
reader. In addition, the mural has clickable
"hot spots" which will lead to other pages
with commentary on the life form illustrated.
Teachers could use this mural as the basis
for a whole unit on the history of life
forms: check out all the pages! A large
mural depicting all the scenes may be
purchased from the web site.
http://www.accessexcellence.org/BF/bf04/niklas/toc.html
Plant Evolution:
Adaptation or Historical Accident? by Professor Karl Niklas. This is
an amazing paper, and easy to read. Professor Niklas has done computer
simulations to determine how efficiently different shapes and sizes of
plants can do what plants must do: gather energy from light, take up water,
support their own structures, and reproduce. See what the plants on
your world are likely to look like! This talk was given to high school
teachers. The material is presented simply and is accessible to the
general reader. Good graphs and diagrams support the text.
Top
of Page
Plant Structure
http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/mgonline/Botany/
-
Master Gardener Training in Botany A very nice series of pages
from the Ohio State University Extension. The first part is about the different parts
of plants and written in simple language. It gives good information supported
by helpful pictures and has extra enrichment material and short quizzes. Check this out!
Your students could probably use it in independent assignments.
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/gpe/case4/c4facts1a.html
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