Video Transcript
A student classifies a group of
plants as either angiosperms or gymnosperms. Which of the following groups has
the student classified correctly? (A) Angiosperms: mango tree, palm
tree, sunflower plant, and fig tree. Or (B) gymnosperms: orange tree,
coast redwood tree, fir tree, and juniper tree.
We’re asked about classifying
plants as angiosperms or gymnosperms, so let’s start by reviewing what these terms
mean. Angiosperms are flowering
plants. These plants produce flowers as
part of their reproductive organs. The flower aids in the process of
pollination, or the transfer of male gametes within pollen to the female
reproductive parts, which contain female gametes in the flower’s ovary. After pollination and fertilization
has occurred, much of the flower’s parts will wither, and the ovary will mature into
a fruit, with the embryo-containing seeds inside. So, angiosperms produce flowers and
fruits that contain seeds.
Gymnosperms refer to plants with
seeds that are not contained in fruits. Gymno- is a word part that means
naked. Since gymnosperm seeds are not
surrounded by a fruit, they are referred to as naked seeds. So gymnosperms do not produce
flowers, and their seeds are not contained in fruits.
With this in mind, let’s look back
at the classifications that were made in the answer choices. Mango trees, palm trees, and fig
trees are well known to produce fruits. So that is an easy way to identify
them as angiosperms. We don’t commonly refer to the
seeds of a sunflower as fruit. But technically, the nutty inside
of what we call the sunflower seed that surrounds the actual seed is a fruit. An easier way to identify a
sunflower as an angiosperm is just the fact that it produces a flower. So all of the plants listed here
are indeed angiosperms.
Let’s look at the plants classified
as gymnosperms in (B). Redwood trees, fir trees, and
juniper trees are all kinds of trees that produce seeds in cones, not fruits. These are therefore correctly
classified as gymnosperms. However, an orange tree does
produce fruit. It produces oranges. An orange tree must therefore be an
angiosperm, not a gymnosperm. (B) therefore has one plant
classified incorrectly as a gymnosperm. So we can eliminate (B). Therefore, the correct answer to
this question is (A). The group that the student
classified correctly is angiosperms: mango tree, palm tree, sunflower plant, and fig
tree.
