font settings

Font Size: Large | Normal | Small
Font Face: Verdana | Geneva | Georgia

Plantae

(Kingdom)

Overview

[ Back to top ]

The plant kingdom, in most modern classifications comprising the algae, bryophytes (mosses and liverworts), seedless vascular plants (ferns, club mosses, horsetails and the seed plants (gymnosperms and angiosperms). In older classifications, the fungi and even bacteria are also included, but these groups are now usually paced in separate kingdoms. The algae are sometimes included in the Protista.

Photos

[ Back to top ]

Taxonomy

[ Back to top ]

The Kingdom Plantae is a member of the Domain Eukaryota. Here is the complete "parentage" of Plantae:

The Kingdom Plantae is further organized into finer groupings including:

Phyla

[ Back to top ]

Anthocerophyta

[more]

Anthocerotophyta

Hornworts are a group of bryophytes, or non-vascular plants, comprising the division Anthocerotophyta. The common name refers to the elongated horn-like structure, which is the sporophyte. The flattened, green plant body of a hornwort is the gametophyte plant. [more]

Bacillariophyta

Diatoms are a major group of algae, and are one of the most common types of phytoplankton. Most diatoms are unicellular, although they can exist as colonies in the shape of filaments or ribbons (e.g. Fragillaria), fans (e.g. Meridion), zigzags (e.g. Tabellaria), or stellate colonies (e.g. Asterionella). Diatoms are producers within the food chain. A characteristic feature of diatom cells is that they are encased within a unique cell wall made of silica (hydrated silicon dioxide) called a frustule. These frustules show a wide diversity in form, but usually consist of two asymmetrical sides with a split between them, hence the group name. Fossil evidence suggests that they originated during, or before, the early Jurassic Period. Diatom communities are a popular tool for monitoring environmental conditions, past and present, and are commonly used in studies of water quality. [more]

Bryophyta

(Gr. bryon: moss; phyton: plant) A phylum of simple plants possessing no vascular tissue and rudimentary rootlike organs (rhizoids). They grow in a variety of damp habitats, from fresh water to rock surfaces. Some use other plants for support. Mosses show a marked alternation of generations between gamete-bearing forms (gametophytes) and spore-bearing forms (sporophytes): they possess erect or prostrate leafy stems (the gametophyte generation, which is haploid); these give rise to leafless stalks bearing capsules (the sporophyte generation, which is diploid), the latter being dependent on the former for water and nutrients. Spores formed in the capsules are released and grow to produce new plants. Formerly, this phylum also included the liverworts and hornworts, now regarded as separate phyla (see Hepatophyta; Anthocerophyta) and the mosses were classified as a class (Musci) of the Bryophyta. The term 'bryophytes' is still used informally to refer to members of all three phyla. Syn. Bryopsida. [more]

Charophyta

The Charophyta are a division of green algae, including the closest relatives of the embryophyte plants. In some groups, such as conjugating green algae, flagellate cells do not occur. The latter group does engage in sexual reproduction, and motility does not involve flagella, since they are totally lacking. Flagellate cells in the form of sperm are found in stoneworts (Charales) and Coleochaetales. [more]

Chitinous

[more]

Chlorophyta

Chlorophyta is a division of green algae, informally called chlorophytes. The name is used in two very different senses so that care is needed to determine the use by a particular author. In older classification systems, it refers to a highly paraphyletic group of all the green algae within the green plants (Viridiplantae), and thus includes about 7,000 species of mostly aquatic photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. Like the land plants (bryophytes and tracheophytes), green algae contain chlorophylls a and b, and store food as starch in their plastids. [more]

Clorophyta

[more]

Cryptophyta

The cryptomonads (or cryptophytes) are a group of algae, most of which have plastids. They are common in freshwater, and also occur in marine and brackish habitats. Each cell is around 10-50 ?m in size and flattened in shape, with an anterior groove or pocket. At the edge of the pocket there are typically two slightly unequal flagella. [more]

Glaucophyta

The glaucophytes, also known as glaucocystophytes or glaucocystids, are a small group of freshwater microscopic algae. Together with the red algae (Rhodophyta) and green algae plus land plants (Viridiplantae or Chloroplastida), they form the Archaeplastida. However, the relationships between the red algae, green algae and glaucophytes are unclear, in large part due to limited study of the glaucophytes. [more]

Haptophyta

The haptophytes, classified either as the Prymnesiophyta or Haptophyta, are a division of algae. [more]

Hepatophyta

The Marchantiophyta  ( listen) are a division of bryophyte plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like other bryophytes, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information. [more]

Magnoliophyta

The flowering plants (angiosperms), also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies (derived characteristics). These characteristics include flowers, endosperm within the seeds, and the production of fruits that contain the seeds. [more]

Marchantiophyta

[more]

Not Assigned

Pinophyta

The conifers, division Pinophyta, also known as division Coniferophyta or Coniferae, are one of 13 or 14 division level taxa within the Kingdom Plantae. Pinophytes are gymnosperms. They are cone-bearing seed plants with vascular tissue; all extant conifers are woody plants, the great majority being trees with just a few being shrubs. Typical examples of conifers include cedars, Douglas-firs, cypresses, firs, junipers, kauri, larches, pines, hemlocks, redwoods, spruces, and yews. The division contains approximately eight families, 68 genera, and 630 living species. Although the total number of species is relatively small, conifers are of immense ecological importance. They are the dominant plants over huge areas of land, most notably the boreal forests of the northern hemisphere, but also in similar cool climates in mountains further south. Boreal conifers have many winter time adaptations. The narrow conical shape of northern conifers, and their downward-drooping limbs help them shed snow. Many of them seasonally alter their biochemistry to make them more resistant to freezing, called "hardening". While tropical rainforests have more biodiversity and turnover, the immense conifer forests of the world represent the largest terrestrial carbon sink, i.e. where carbon is bound as organic compounds. They are also of great economic value, primarily for timber and paper production; the wood of conifers is known as softwood. [more]

Prasinophyta

[more]

Pteridophyta

A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem (making them vascular plants). They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants. Ferns reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. [more]

Rhodophyta

The red algae, or Rhodophyta ( or /?ro?d?'fa?t?/; from Greek: ??d?? (rhodon) = rose + f?t?? (phyton) = plant, thus red plant), are one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae, and also one of the largest, with about 5,000?6,000 species  of mostly multicellular, marine algae, including many notable seaweeds. Other references indicate as many as 10,000 species; more detailed counts indicate ~4,000 in ~600 genera (3,738 marine spp in 546 genera and 10 orders (plus the unclassifiable); 164 freshwater spp in 30 genera in 8 orders). [more]

Tracheophyta

Vascular plants (also known as tracheophytes or higher plants) are those plants that have lignified tissues for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant. Vascular plants include the clubmosses, Equisetum, ferns, gymnosperms (including conifers) and angiosperms (flowering plants). Scientific names for the group include Tracheophyta and Tracheobionta. [more]

At least 1,298,138 species and subspecies belong to the Phylum Tracheophyta.

More info about the Phylum Tracheophyta may be found here.

Sources

[ Back to top ]
Last Revised: October 03, 2013
2013/10/03 15:22:00