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PLANT 
any organism of the plant kingdom, as opposed to one of theanimalkingdom or of thekingdomsFungi,Protista, or Monerain the five-kingdom system of classification. (A more recent system, suggested by genetic sequencing studies, places plants with animalsand some other forms in an overarching group, the eukarya, to distinguish them from the prokaryotic bacteria and archaea, or ancient bacteria.) A plant may be microscopic in sizeand simple in structure, as are certain one-celled algae, or a gigantic, many-celledcomplex system, such as a tree. Plants are generally distinguished from animals in thatthey possess chlorophyll, are usually fixed in one place, have no nervous system or sensory organs and hence respond slowly to stimuli, and have rigid supporting cell wallscontainingcellulose.In addition, plants grow continually throughout life and have nomaximum size or characteristic form in the adult, as do animals. In higher plants themeristem tissues in the root and stem tips, in the buds, and in the cambium are areas of active growth. Plants also differ from animals in the internal structure of thecelland incertain details of reproduction (seemitosis).There are exceptions to these basic differences: some unicellular plants (e.g.,
 Euglena
)and plant reproductive cells are motile; certain plants (e.g.,
Mimosa pudica,
the sensitive plant) respond quickly to stimuli; and some lower plants do not have cellulose cell walls,while the animal tunicates (e.g., the sea squirt) do produce a celluloselike substance.The Plant KingdomThe systems of classificationof the plant kingdom vary in naming and placing the larger categories (even the divisions) because there is little reliable fossil evidence, as there is inthe case of animals, to establish the true evolutionary relationships of and distances between these groups. However, comparisons of nucleic acid sequences in plants are nowserving to clarify such relationships among plants as well as other organisms.A widely held view of plant evolution is that the ancestors of land plants were primitivealgae that made their way from the ocean to freshwater, where they inhabited alternatelywet-and-dry shoreline environments, eventually giving rise to such later forms as themosses and ferns. From some remote fern ancestor, in turn, arose the seed plants.The plant kingdom traditionally was divided into two large groups, or subkingdoms, based chiefly on reproductive structure. These are the thallophytes (subkingdomThallobionta), which do not form embryos, and the embryophytes (subkingdomEmbryobionta), which do. All embryophytes and most thallophytes have a life cycle inwhich there are two alternating generations (seereproduction
 
). The plant form of thethallophytes is an undifferentiated thallus lacking true roots, stems, and leaves. The
 
subkingdom Thallobionta is composed of more than 10 divisions of algaeand fungi (onceconsidered plants). The subkingdom Embryobionta is composed of two groups: the bryophytes (liverwortandmoss), divisionBryophyta, which have no vascular tissues, and a group consisting of seven divisions of plants that do have vascular tissues. TheBryophyta, like other nonvascular plants, are simple in structure and lack true roots,stems, and leaves; they therefore usually live in moist places or in water.The vascular plants have true roots, stems, and leaves and a well-developed vascular system composed of xylem and phloem for transporting water and food throughout the plant; they are therefore able to inhabit land. Three of the divisions of the vascular plantsare currently represented by only a very few species. They are thePsilotophyta, with onlythree living species; theLycopodiophyta(club mosses); and theEquisetophyta  (horsetails). All the plants of a fourth subdivision, theRhyniophyta, are extinct. Theremaining divisions include the dominant vegetation of the earth today: the ferns (seePolypodiophyta
 
), the cone-bearing gymnosperms (seePinophyta
 
), and the angiosperms,or true flowering plants (seeMagnoliophyta). The latter two classes, because they both bear seeds, are often collectively called spermatophytes, or seed plants.The gymnosperms are all woody perennial plants and include several orders, of whichmost important are theconifer,theginkgo,and thecycad.The angiosperms are separated into the monocotyledonous plants—usually with one cotyledon per seed, scatteredvascular bundles in thestem, little or nocambium, and parallel veins in theleaf  —and the dicotyledonous plants—which as a rule have two cotyledons per seed, cylindricalvascular bundles in a regular pattern, a cambium, and net-veined leaves. There are some50,000 species of monocotyledon, including the grasses (e.g., bamboo and such cereals ascorn, rice, and wheat), cattails, lilies, bananas, and orchids. The dicotyledons containnearly 200,000 species of plant, from tiny herbs to great trees; this enormously variedgroup includes the majority of plants cultivated as ornamentals and for vegetables andfruit.Importance of PlantsPlants are essential to the balance of nature and in people's lives. Green plants, i.e., those possessingchlorophyll, manufacture their own food and give off oxygen in the processcalled photosynthesis, in which water and carbon dioxide are combined by the energy of light. Plants are the ultimate source of food and metabolic energy for nearly all animals,which cannot manufacture their own food. Besides foods (e.g., grains, fruits, andvegetables), plant products vital to humans includewoodand wood products, fibers,drugs, oils, latex, pigments, and resins. Coal and petroleum are fossil substances of plantorigin. Thus plants provide people not only sustenance but shelter, clothing, medicines,fuels, and the raw materials from which innumerable other products are made. Mostfamiliar are themulticellular land plants, calledembryophytes. They include thevascular   plants, plants with full systems of leaves, stems, androots. They also include a few of  their close relatives, often called 
bryophytes
,of whichmossesandliverwortsare the most common.
 
All of these plants haveeukaryoticcells withcell wallscomposed of cellulose,and most obtain their energy through photosynthesis, usinglightandcarbon dioxideto synthesize food. About three hundred plant species do not photosynthesize but are parasiteson other species of photosynthetic plants. Plants are distinguished fromgreen algae,whichrepresent a mode of photosynthetic life similar to the kind modern plants are believed tohave evolved from, by having specialized reproductive organs protected by non-reproductive tissues.Bryophytes first appeared during the earlyPalaeozoic. They can only survive wheremoisture is available for significant periods, although some species are desiccationtolerant. Most species of bryophyte remain small throughout their life-cycle. Thisinvolves an alternation between two generations: ahaploidstage, called thegametophyte,  and adiploidstage, called thesporophyte. The sporophyte is short-lived and remains dependent on its parent gametophyte.Vascular plants first appeared during theSilurianperiod, and by theDevonianhad diversified and spread into many different land environments. They have a number of adaptations that allowed them to overcome the limitations of the bryophytes. Theseinclude a cuticle resistant to desiccation, and vascular tissues which transport water throughout the organism. In most the sporophyte acts as a separate individual, while thegametophyte remains small.The first primitive seed plants, Pteridosperms (seed ferns) and Cordaites, both groupsnow extinct, appeared in the late Devonian and diversified through the Carboniferous,with further evolution through thePermianandTriassic periods. In these the gametophyte stage is completely reduced, and the sporophyte begins life inside an enclosure called aseed,which develops while on the parent plant, and with fertilisation by means of  pollengrains. Whereas other vascular plants, such as ferns, reproduce by means of spores and soneed moisture to develop, some seed plants can survive and reproduce in extremely aridconditions.Early seed plants are referred to asgymnosperms(naked seeds), as the seed embryo is notenclosed in a protective structure at pollination, with the pollen landing directly on theembryo. Four surviving groups remain widespread now, particularly theconifers, whichare dominanttreesin several biomes. Theangiosperms, comprising theflowering plants, were the last major group of plants to appear, emerging from within the gymnospermsduring theJurassicand diversifying rapidly during theCretaceous. These differ in that the seed embryo (angiosperm) is enclosed, so the pollen has to grow a tube to penetrate the protective seed coat; they are the predominant group of flora in most biomes today.Most of the solid material in a plant is taken from the atmosphere. Through a processknown as photosynthesis, plants use the energy insunlightto convertcarbon dioxide  from the atmosphere, pluswater , into simplesugars.These sugars are then used as  building blocks and form the main structural component of the plant.Chlorophyll, agreen-colored,magnesium-containingpigmentis essential to this process; it is generally  present in plantleaves, and often in other plant parts as well.
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