Question

3. Fungi are heterotrophic organisms. What does this mean? 

4. What role do fungi have as decomposers in nature? 

5. Plants: What is the function of vascular tissue? 

6. Plants: Give one adaptation seen in plants that allowed them to invade "dry" land?

Answer 1

3. Fungi are nongreen and obtain their food either from organic matter or from other living organisms. Hence, they are called heterotrophic.

4. As decomposers, fungi play an essential role in maintaining equilibrium. They recycle nutrients by breaking down bodies and wastes of other organisms.

5. The vascular tissues include xylem, which conducts water and minerals from the roots upward and throughout the plant, and phloem, which transports dissolved nutrients in all directions within the plant.

6. The adaptations that helped plants to invade land includes:

a. the presence of waxy cuticle so as to prevent water loss

b. presence of pollen grain which minimize their dependence on water for reproduction

c. the evolution of xylem for trapping water and for support and also phloem for the transport of their manufactured food

d. the presence of stomata and guard cells for monitoring their air and uptake

e. seeds presence so as to disperse and pass harsh environmental condition via seed dormancy