To Be A Plant

Well, as you see, there are many, many different kinds of plants. However, to be in the Plant Kingdom, they must have some things in common.

What is a plant?

All plants ...

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

Grouping Plants

Plants can be grouped, or classified, in a couple of different ways.

• seed producing and non-seed producing
• vascular plants and non-vascular plants
  • Vascular plants contain a tube-like system of special cells that is used to transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Most of the plants you are familiar with are likely to be vascular plants. Oak trees, grass, and fruit plants are all vascular plants.
  • Non-vascular plants are plants that do not contain the vascular tissue.

For example, take the moss growing on the tree shown above. The moss is non-vascular. The tree is vascular.

Mosses are a type of non-vascular plant, and trees are a vascular plant. Because non-vascular plants have no way to transport water, they are all short plants that are close to the ground or close to the item they are growing on. Large trees like the one above have vascular tissue that transports water from the roots all the way up to the tips of the leaves.

Take a minute to watch the The Classification of Plants presentation or read the text version. As you watch, consider the following questions:

• About how many plant species are there?
• How do non-vascular plants get water?
• Where are plants found?

Close This Window