Plant | Characteristics & Types of Plant

Plant Definition:

The Plant is basically multicellular organisms. They are autotrophic in nature. By the process of photosynthesis, they make their own food. In the kingdom Plantae, there are almost over 300,000 species of plants are present. Grasses, trees, and shrubs are very common examples of plants.

In the world, ecosystem Plants play a vital role. Plants essential function is that they generate the maximum amount of world�s oxygen. Plants are essential for food chain continuity.

Information about Plants

Plant Characteristics

In the coming paragraphs features and characteristics of plants are briefly described:

1. Plants are autotrophic in nature they make their own food by the special process called Photosynthesis.
2. In the process of photosynthesis, plants make their own food in the form of Glucose by utilizing carbon dioxide, sunlight, and water in the presence of chlorophyll.
3. Photosynthesis process takes place in the chloroplasts of plant cells.
4. Plants are basically multicellular living organisms which consist of eukaryotic cells. Eukaryotic Cells are large cell consisting of a large nucleus with the well-developed organelles.
5. Eukaryotic cells are present in Plants, protists, fungi, and animals.
6. Plant cells are eminent from the animal cells due to the presence of a cell wall containing cellulose.
7. Plants also contain chloroplasts that help in photosynthesis.
8. Plants also contain large central vacuole which maintains the turgidity of the plant by holding water.
9. Plants consist of vascular tissue. These tissues are a collection of xylem and phloem.
10. Xylem tissues carry water and dissolved minerals and transport it throughout the body of the plant.
11. Phloem carries water and nutrients in the form of Glucose and transports it throughout the body of the plant.
12. Vascular bundles are found in Higher Plants that are complex structures they have to transport water to the whole plant body.
13. Botanist believes that Plants are progressed or evolved from Algae descendants. But nowadays Algae are confidentially classified as Bacteria rather than plants. But, Green Algae, whose cell wall is made up of cellulose and their bodies also consist of chloroplasts which help them to perm photosynthesis process. These are classified with plants group.
14. Plants replicate or reproduce both Sexually and Asexually.
15. Alternation of Generations is also present in the plants. In this, during a complete cycle, Haploid stage substitutes or alters with a Diploid stage.
16. In the Haploid stage, cells consist of only one chromosomal set while in the diploid stage two sets of chromosomes are present in each cell.
17. During the process of reproduction in plants, two haploid gametes seam of fused to form a diploid Zygote. After this diploid zygote divides by the process of mitosis and later on after these divisions, it developed into a multicellular organism. Later on, these developed cells are called sporophyte, and at the time of maturity, the process of asexual reproduction they produce haploid spores.
18. Later on, the haploid spores germinate into multicellular organisms which are called Gametophytes.
19. In a simple explanation, Gametophytes yield haploid gametes, which later on combined to form a diploid organism. Due to this, there is an alternation between diploid and haploid occurs.

This image below shows the process of Alternation of Generation.

 

Classification of Plant Kingdom

Types of Plants

1. Charophytes

Charophytes are basically multifaceted Green Algae e.g Stone Worts. These cells have cellulose containing Cell Wall. These cells also have Chloroplasts and also have the ability to store starch, exactly the same as plants do. They imitate or reproduce sexually by the flagella movement their flagella have sperms.

2. Bryophytes

They are non-vascular land plants. Bryophytes lake Vascular tissue. Inside the other plants, vascular tissues help is the transportation of water and nutrients. They are also known as Amphibian Plants because they are found on land and in water. They are usually similar to algae due to lack of vascular system. Its body has similar structures like stem, root, and leaves but these structures are not true stem, leave and root that is found in vascular plants. Common examples of bryophytes are mosses, liverworts, and hornworts.

 

3. Seedless Vascular Plants

Seedless vascular plants generate the embryos which are not dwindled by seeds. Besides this, they are replicated by the help of spores. Examples of the Seedless Vascular plants are spike mosses, ferns, quillworts, horsetails, and clubmosses. But above these plants are called Pteridophytes. During the Devonian period and Carboniferous forests period Seedless vascular plants have been thrived or evolved.

4. Gymnosperms

Gymnosperms comprised of conifers and its interrelated plants e.g Cycads and Ginkgoes. Like the flowering plants, their seeds are not present inside the ovary due to this character they are known as Naked Seeds. Besides this in the gymnosperms seeds are cultivated on the leaves upper surface or seeds might produce on the specialized structures called Cones in the case of Conifers. The furthermost communal specimen of a gymnosperm is Pine Tree.

�5. Angiosperms

Angiosperms are Flowering Plants and widely distributed all over the world. About 295,000 different species of angiosperms are well known now a day. Reproductive organs of Angiosperms include flowers, which consists of male parts e.g. Pollens and Stamen, and female parts e.g. Pistil. When the pollination takes place, flowers are pollinated after this fruit develop. The seed is present inside the fruits. They possess more complex vascular system as compare to Gymnosperms.

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Importance of Plants

Human beings cannot live without plants because by the process of photosynthesis Oxygen is produced as a byproduct of photosynthesis. Oxygen is essential for the organism�s survival.

Names of Plants

Related Biology Terms

• Eukaryotic Cell � It is a large cell consisting of a large nucleus with the well-developed organelles.
• Chloroplast � specialized organelle initiate in Plant cell which comprises chlorophyll. It is the site for photosynthesis.
• Organelle � A particular edifice inside a cell which performs a specific function in the cell.
• Alternation of generations � The interchange of Haploid stage with Diploid stage in a life cycle of the plant.