7.01 Plants: A Diverse Kingdom

Time to Reflect

Plants play a very important part in the maintenance of life on Earth. Animals depend on plants either directly or indirectly for food and oxygen. Plants come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They can be classified in a number of ways and can be found in a variety of environments. They are one of the most diverse kingdoms of organisms.

• Plants are multicellular.
• Plants have eukaryote-type cells with a cell wall made up of cellulose.
• Plants are autotrophic (they contain chlorophyll and make their own food through photosynthesis).
• Plants have an outer, waxy, and waterproof coating called a cuticle.

Let's get organized!

Your mission is to help Dr. Ramie and her staff organize the greenhouses. They are just about through with an inventory of the plant species and have prepared the following diagram to help organize the plants once they are done. The following concept map activity will help you visualize how plants are classified.

1. Save the concept map to your desktop.
2. Using the words from the Word Bank, type the correct word into the appropriate blank space on the Concept Map for Kingdom Plantae.
3. When you're finished, save this file as an .rtf.
4. You will use this file for assignment 7.01 – Taxonomy of Plants.

Organizing Plants Concept Map

Tour Debrief

You have completed this activity if you have:

• added the new terms and their meanings to your Module 7 Glossary Sheet
• determined the characteristics that plants have in common
• watched the video on the classification of plants and answered the review questions in your notebook
• completed the Organizing Plants Concept Map activity