Plantae Kingdom Project

How They Survive

Plants move around extremely slow towards the light though we don’t see it. They try to keep predators away by producing noxious chemicals, growing spines and generating sticky saps. Some plants deal with very hot situations by using water to soak up most of the heat, and then allowing it to evaporate as water vapour. Other plants produce reflective hairs to reduce the amount of heat and light they receive.

Water is very important to plants as they can’t survive without it so they have two procedures of reducing the loss of it.

The first way is called dessication tolerance which is when plants produce compounds which protect their cells when they dry out and they also have a repair mechanism which rapidly goes into effect when the plant re-hydrates. This allows plants to completely dry out for long periods, and rapidly recover. For example, some mosses can be left dried out for decades and then be re-hydrated back and allowed to have life again. They can fully recover in under an hour.

The second way is called drought avoidance which is when plants develop features which reduce the loss of water or store it in their tissues. Some plants develop a condition (succulence) in which the tissues are spongy and swollen for storing water like in cacti.

Classification Of Plants

Plants are classified into 12 phyla or divisions which are according to their reproductive characteristics. So they are classified according to their tissue structure which determines whether they are vascular or non-vascular plants. Then are classified according to their seed structure such as whether they reproduce through naked seeds, covered seeds or spores. They are also classified by their stature where they are divided into mosses, ferns, shrubs and vines, trees and herbs.

Non-Vascular Plants

Mosses are non-vascular plants which mean that they cannot transport fluids through their bodies. They rely on the surrounding moisture to do this job for them. They are very important for an ecosystem because they lay the foundations for other plant growth, prevents erosion from occurring and give forests most of their lush green appearance. They reproduce by spores, never have flowers, and can be found growing on the ground, on rocks, and on other plants. Mosses come from a phylum that comprise of 24,000 species.

Vascular Plants

Ferns are vascular plants which mean that they can transport fluids through their bodies. Ferns reproduce from spores rather than seeds. Ferns come from a phylum that contains around 12,000 species.

Others

Conifers reproduce from seeds instead of spores. The seeds are naked which means that they are not covered by an ovary. The seed is produced in a con-like structure which resembles a pine cone. Some conifers such as the Yew and Ginko produce their seeds in a berry-like structure. We can identify conifers by their needle-like leaves or about the fact that they never have flowers. Conifers come from a phylum where there are approximately 600 species.

Dicot Plants grow their seeds inside an ovary which is embedded in a flower. After fertilization, the flower falls away and the ovary swells to become a fruit. They grow two-seeded leaves. Dicot Plants come from a phylum which includes about 200000 species. Most of the fruits and vegetables come from this phylum.

Monocots start growing with a one-seeded leaf. Grass on lawns are monocots. Monocots provide us with our primary source of nutrition, supplying us and the animals we eat with grains such as corn, wheat, oats and some fruits like dates and bananas.

By Harris Rasheed 10E (BB)