Plant Spotting

The requirements include permanent slides, hand sections or photographs of bacteria, Oscillatoria, Spirogyra, Rhizopus, yeast, preserved or fresh specimens of mushrooms, lichens, Funaria, Marchantia, Dryopteris/fern, Pinus, and angiospermic plants (one monocotyledonous and one dicotyledonous plant).

Cells are oval or spherical in shape, colorless, form chains of buds for propagation, each cell has one vacuole, and a single nucleus is present in each cell.

Foliose lichens are leafy lichens with flat lobed and horizontally spreading thalli, attached to the substratum by rhizoid-like structures.

Funaria is classified under Kingdom Plantae, Division Bryophyta, and Class Musci/Bryopsida.

An erect stalk composed of a mass of vertically arranged hyphae.

Pollen sacs are elongated sac-like structures borne at the base of microsporophylls on the ventral side, which contain pollen grains that are winged.

Rhizoids are long, colourless, septate, and intertwined structures that attach the thallus to the substratum.

A columella is a dome-shaped structure found inside the cavity of a sporangium.

Fronds are large compound leaves that arise from a bud on the aerial shoot of Dryopteris.

The petiole is long, cylindrical, and covered with hairs when young.

A spur shoot is a dwarf branch with its needles found on the Pinus tree.

The leaves of Funaria are green and spirally arranged on the stem-like portion.

Rhizoidal hyphae are hyphae that grow down into the substratum.

Dicotyledonous plants have a taproot system.

Gemma cups are small cup-like structures borne on the dorsal surface of the Marchantia thallus, containing vegetative propagules called gemmae.

Dicotyledonous leaves have reticulate venation.

Sori are large numbers of greenish (when young) or black (when mature) sac-like structures borne on the ventral side of the pinnule at the point of bifurcation of each vein, containing a cluster of sporangia bearing spores.

The body of lichen is a thallus, which is grey or greyish in color, with possible yellow, red, orange, or brown segments in some species.

Crustose lichens are encrusting lichens with a thin, flat, inconspicuous thallus that lacks lobes, appearing as a thin layer closely attached to stones, rocks, or tree barks.

The ventral side of the Marchantia thallus bears colorless, unicellular rhizoids of two types: smooth-walled and tuberculate, which help in anchorage and water absorption.

Agaricus is a saprophytic fungus that grows in soil rich in humus and organic matter.

An umbrella-like structure attached ventrally at the center to the stalk.

Stoloniferous hyphae are horizontal hyphae that grow parallel on the surface of the substratum.

A Monocotyledonous plant is characterized by a differentiated plant body into roots, stems, and leaves, a fibrous root system, simple or compound leaves with parallel venation, trimerous flowers, and seeds with one cotyledon.

Monocotyledonous leaves have parallel venation.

The systematic position of Spirogyra is Kingdom Monera, Division Chlorophyta, Class Chlorophyceae.

A collar-like ring at the base of the stipe, which is a remnant of the covering of the young basidiocarp.

The systematic position of Pinus is as follows: Kingdom – Plantae, Division – Gymnosperm, Class – Coniferopsida.

Monocotyledonous plants have a fibrous root system.

Spirogyra is a green algae commonly found in stagnant fresh water, characterized by unbranched, filamentous structures with long cylindrical cells, spiral ribbon-shaped chloroplasts, and a single large vacuole in each cell.

Acicular leaves are needle-like green leaves found on the branches of Pinus.

The thallus of Funaria consists of a small upright 'stem' that bears small, ovate, leaf-like structures which are without midrib.

The sporophyte consists of a prominent conical capsule raised on a long stalk known as seta and a foot embedded into the tissues of the gametophyte.

Marchantia thallus is a dorsiventrally flat, thalloid structure that grows flat on the surface of the soil substratum, with dichotomously lobed features and a dark median furrow called mid-rib.

Circinnate venation refers to the young leaf being rolled from apex downwards like a watch spring.

Dicotyledonous plants have flowers that are tetramerous or pentamerous.

Oscillatoria is a blue-green algae found in fresh water bodies, characterized by a filamentous, unbranched, multicellular thallus with cells arranged like a pack of cards, each having a definite cell wall.

Bacteria (sing. : bacterium) are unicellular organisms characterized by the presence of a cell wall and the absence of membrane-bound organelles like mitochondria, nucleus, golgi bodies, and plastids. They also contain mesosomes.

Morphology is the study of the characteristic features of species, which can include external or internal features. It aids in the identification and classification of organisms.

Radiating plate-like structures on the under surface of the pileus that bear basidia and basidiospores.

A Dicotyledonous plant is characterized by a differentiated plant body into roots, stems, and leaves, a taproot system, simple or compound leaves with reticulate venation, tetramerous or pentamerous flowers, and seeds with two cotyledons.

The male branch bears antheridia which are club-shaped, while the female branch bears archegonia which are flask-shaped.

A sporangiophore is an erect, vertically growing hyphae that bears the sporangium.

Fruticose lichens are shrubby lichens with cylindrical, flat or ribbon-like upright, generally branched and pendulous thalli, attached to the substratum by disc-like structures at their bases.

The rhizome of Dryopteris is short, thick, and covered with scale leaves, remnants of leaf bases, and clusters of adventitious roots.

Rhizopus belongs to the Kingdom Fungi, Division Eumycota, and Class Zygomycetes.

Antheridiophores and archegoniophores are reproductive organs in Marchantia, arising from the apical notches of male and female thalli, respectively, with the antheridiophore bearing antheridia and the archegoniophores having an umbrella-shaped structure with archegonia.

Monocotyledonous plants have trimerous flowers.

Dicotyledonous seeds have two cotyledons.

In Oscillatoria, the cells are arranged one above the other, have a definite cell wall, and some may appear as blank spaces due to being dead.

Mycelium is an interwoven mass of hyphae that constitutes the thallus of fungi.

The fruiting body of Agaricus is known as the basidiocarp.

Monocotyledonous seeds have one cotyledon.

The systematic position of Oscillatoria is Kingdom Monera, Division Cyanobacteria, Class Cyanophyceae.

Conjugation tubes are structures formed between the cells of two different filaments during the reproductive phase.

Coenocytic hyphae are tubular, multinucleate hyphae that lack septa.