BIOLOGY 3404FEVOLUTION OF PLANTS

Fall 2008

Lecture 18Tuesday November 25, 2008

Monocots

Phylum Magnoliophyta, Class Liliopsida

• Order Acorales - Sweet Flag• Order Alismatales - Water Plantain, etc.• Order Dioscoreales - Yams and relatives• Order Liliales - Lilies and relatives• Order Asparagales - Asparagus and relatives• Order Arecales - Palms• Order Commelinales - Spiderwort , etc.• Order Zingiberales - Gingers, bananas etc. • Order Poales - Graminoids and bromeliads

PoalesDasypogonaceaeZingiberalesCommelinalesArecalesAsparagalesLilialesPandanalesDioscorealesPetrosavialesAlismatalesAcoralesChase, 2004AmJBot 91:1645-1655

Acorales: Acoraceae, Sweet Flag

http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/thome/band1/tafel_042_small.jpg

Rhizomes of Sweet Flag have been used as food and medicine around the northern hemisphere. They are said to have a pungent and bitter taste, perhaps why they were sometimes candied. Chewing on a fresh piece of rhizome (preferably with the mud washed off) is said to be good for relieving toothaches or for teething children; also for relieving tiredness among trappers (the northern version of coca leaves). Not recommended by the FDA.

Order Alismatales

• Families• Alismataceae - water plantains• Araceae - aroids (includes Lemnaceae – the

duckweeds)• Hydrocharitaceae - various “waterweeds”• Potamogetonaceae - pondweeds• Zosteraceae - eelgrass

Alismataceae

http://biology.smsu.edu/Herbarium/Plants

Saggitaria (arrowhead lilies, left) and Alisma (water plantains, below) are common aquatic plants

Araceae, the Aroids

Anthurium (left) and Arisaema (Jack-in-the-pulpit, right) are classic aroids, with spathe and spadix inflorescences

Duckweeds: Lemna and Wolffia (Araceae, formerly Lemnaceae)

Wolffia borealis flower (Araceae, formerly Lemnaceae)

Flowering plant of Lemna gibba (Araceae, formerly Lemnaceae)

Valisneria, or freshwater eel grass (Hydrocharitaceae)

Hydrocharitaceae - various “waterweeds”

Elodea (top left, a common aquarium plant) is a monocot and member of the Hydrocharitaceae, but Myriophyllum (top right) and Ranunculus aquatilis (lower) are both eudicots – all adapted for life in water.

Potamogetonaceae - pondweeds

http://www.mikrojezioro.met.pl/atlas_ros/original/potamogeton_natans_rys.jpg

Pondweeds may have broad floating or emergent leaves, and grass-like or filamentous submerged leaves; flowers are inconspicuous.

Zosteraceae – eel grasses

Eel grass (Zostera marina) is an important food of many marine animals, including brant geese; flowers are rarely seen and very inconspicuous at the base of the leaves.

http://www.eeb.uconn.edu

www.nature.shetland.co.uk/ brc/seawatch.htm

Order Dioscoreales: Dioscoreaceae - Yams

Progesterone (birth-control) pills and cortisone are manufactured from cultivated yams (Dioscorea)

Order Liliales

• Families• Liliaceae• Smilacaceae• Trilliaceae

Zygadenus (Liliaceae)

Smilax, known as greenbriers

Order Asparagales

Alliaceae (inclAmaryllidaceae)

Asparagaceae(incl Agavaceae)

IridaceaeOrchidaceae

Yucca and Asparagus (Asparagaceae)

Alliaceae - onions and Amaryllis

Iridaceae

http://www.frogsonice.com/photos/flowers2/iris.jpg

Orchidaceae – the orchids

Pollinating an orchid can be dangerous!

Order Arecales:Arecaceae (Palmae) - the palms

Coconut, oil palm, palm nuts (pejibaye), palm hearts, …

Order Commelinales

• Commelinaceae - spiderworts• Pontederiaceae - pickerelweeds

Order Poales - graminoids, bromeliads and relatives

Families• Bromeliaceae - bromeliads• Cyperaceae - sedges• Eriocaulaceae• Juncaceae - rushes• Poaceae (= Gramineae) - grasses• Typhaceae (incl. Sparganiaceae) - bullrushes• Xyridaceae

Bromeliaceae - bromeliads

Cyperaceae, Typhaceae

Carex, a sedge Typha, cat-tail or bullrush

Poaceae (= Gramineae) - grasses

Order Zingiberales

• Heliconiaceae - heliconias• Marantaceae - marantas• Musaceae - bananas• Zingiberaceae - gingers

Heliconia

http://floredumonde.online.fr/photos/heliconia.jpg

Maranta, MarantaceaeA ginger

Musa, the banana

Importance• Economic: HUGE! List some of the major monocot

crops. What other products, other than food, do we obtain from monocots?

• Ecological: HUGE! Grasses, and in cooler, wetter areas sedges, form the dominant vegetation over large areas of the globe.

• Evolutionary: Second and fifth largest (in number of species) flowering plant families: Orchidaceae (20k) and Poaceae (9k). Tremendous diversity and huge impact on evolution of other groups organisms, from microbes to vertebrates.