PLANT KINGDOM

Plants – belong to the eukaryote group, multicellular

- have chlorophyll, can make their own food

2 Big Groups
1. Nonvascular – do not have tissues to transport water and food
2. Vascular – have transport system

I. NONVASCULAR PLANTS
- green patches attached to stones or cement walls especially during the rainy season or in moist, wet and shady
areas
Examples
1. Liverworts - attached to the places where they live by means of their root-like rhizoids
2. Mosses Rhizoids - absorb water and nutrients instead of true roots
3. Hornworts - do not have true stems and leaves so they grow very close to damp grounds, stone walls or tree trunks

*How do liverworts, mosses and hornworts differ in appearance?

Liverworts are flat and ribbonlike.

Mosses have many small leaflike structures.
Hornworts grow flat leaves on top of each other.

Reproductive Structures
1. Liverworts develop “umbrella-like” structures that produce eggs and sperms.
2. The capsules at the tip of thin stalks in mosses.
- These capsules contain the spores
3. In hornworts, it is the thin “thorn-like” structures.

Important role of nonvascular plants in our environment

1. They provide oxygen to many organisms.
2. Their “carpetlike” growth covering large areas in hilly grounds prevent erosion and increase the capacity of soil to
hold water.
3. Dried Sphagnum or peat moss is used to wrap plants and breakable items during transport.
4. Gardeners use them to retain more water in the soil for important crops.
5. Old, dead sphagnum form thick deposits called peat, which is used as fuel in some places.

*Why do you think nonvascular plants cannot grow very large or tall?
-They have no true roots, stems and leaves that can transport food and materials to different parts.

II. VASCULAR PLANTS

Ferns – thrive on land with true roots, stems and leaves
- reproduce by spores
- more than 900 species can be found in moist, shaded and mountainous areas in the country
- some still inhabit freshwaters, while others grow on tree trunks
- exhibit diversity in size from a few millimeters to about 12 meters
Anabaena cyanobacterium - underside of azolla, a water fern
Examples
1. Giant fern - has big leaves and it is tall almost reaching 1st floor of the building
2. Water fern
3. Tree fern - not strong as woody plants

Uses of Ferns

1. Provide oxygen
2. Some serve as food (Pako)
3. Used in making handicraft items (Nito)
4. Decoration

*How will Azolla help rice if they are grown together in fields?
They will provide usable nitrogen to plants or serve as natural/organic fertilizer.
III. GYMNOSPERMS
- consist of those which bear seeds contained in cones and those inside a protective layer of tissue

Examples
1. Conifers - like pine trees grow in cold countries and in elevated places in warmer climates
- woody trees and have tough needle-like leaves
2. Cycads - short, palm-like plant growing in tropical and subtropical areas
* Cycads in the Philippines they are seen in well-landscaped hotels and parks.
3. Ginkgoes - has been preserved as a sacred tree in Chinese temple gardens since ancient times
4. Gnetophytes - represented by Welwitschia which can be found in Namibia, Southwestern Africa

Uses

1. Sources of quality wood for making plywood

and furniture (timber)
2. Supply pulp to paper-producing factories
3. Other species provide resin, used in making
perfumes and varnishes.
4. Pine cones are popular Christmas decoration
items.
5. Pine trees yield tannin used in tanning animal
skins in producing leather. Tannin is also used to
make ink. (a) Benguet pine cones and (b) a Ginkgo biloba tree growing in Tokyo, Japan

*How would uncontrolled cutting of pine trees, for example, affect the forest ecosystem?
Less oxygen will be available. There will be erosion, less timber, no home for birds and other animals.

IV. ANGIOSPERMS
- belong to Phylum Anthophyta
- comprising flowering plants, the dominant form of plant life

Classification According to Lifespan

1. Annuals – live for a year or one growing season and die like rice and corn
2. Biennials – develop roots, stems and leaves during the first year, produce seeds on the second year, then die
3. Perennials – live for many years, usually producing woody stems like tsitsirika, bamboo, and trees

Classification According to the Arrangement of Leaves in Stem

1. Alternate
2. Radial
3. Opposite

Classification According to the Number of Cotyledons Present in Seeds

1. Monocotyledons or monocots – only one cotyledon present, e.g coconut and grasses
2. Dicotyledons or dicots – have two cotyledons present, e.g gumamela and mango

*In terms of leaf venation, is santan a dicot or a monocot? Dicot

*How about bamboo? Monocot.

Water Plants which Grow in Freshwater Habitats

1. Water hyacinth - often mistaken as water lily
- have green heart-shaped leaves, bladders and smaller violet flowers
- serves as a depollutant
2. Quiapo 3. Water lily 4. Duckweed 5. Vallisneria
Water Plants which Grow in Salt Water Habitats
Seagrasses like the eel grass are found in coastal areas.
Aerial plants
Waling-waling – endemic orchid, an endangered species
- move in congress to make it the second national flower.

Importance of Angiosperms
1. Serve as foods
Filipinos’ staple food: rice and corn
Vegetables: camote tops, malunggay, cabbage, carrots, saluyot and squash.
2. Use in making furniture (Rattan)
3. Cure some diseases (Lagundi, sambong, ampalaya, and banaba)
Harmful Plants
1. Sorghum – cause cyanide poisoning in cows and other livestock
2. Jatropha curcas (tuba-tuba/tubang bakod) – popular due to its being an alternative source of bio-fuel
- known to have medicinal properties, its seed is poisonous
- fruits which are usually eaten by children cause stomach pain, burning sensation in the throat and
vomiting
*Many cases of tuba-tuba poisoning which led to death of some have been reported in several areas in the
country.
3. Manihot esculenta (cassava) – contains hydrocyanic acid, if boiled with its bark on it can be poisonous
*It is advised that during cooking, the pot cover should be removed for the cyanogas to escape.
*Do not eat any part of a plant which you are not familiar with.
4. Echinochloa crus-galli (dawa-dawa) and Digitaria sanguinalis (saka-saka) – weeds which are alternative hosts to
abaca and corn mosaic viruses.
- often grow along with food crops, compete for nutrients needed by the latter. Such competition results in
decreased harvest.
5. Kantutai/coronitas/baho-baho, and Hantalakaw/malasili – contain chemicals that can be fatal to animals
6. Morning glory – host to the snout beetle (sweet potato weevil) that greatly lessen sweet potato harvest
7. Dieffenbachia maculata (dumbcane) – an ornamental house and garden plant, can be dangerous to children
- the leaves and stem with its bitter and poisonous juice burns the mouth
- causes swelling of the tongue that can affect speech and block the air passage that may lead to death

Harmful Plants
3. Sorghum – cause cyanide poisoning in cows and other livestock
4. Jatropha curcas (tuba-tuba/tubang bakod) – popular due to its being an alternative source of bio-fuel
- known to have medicinal properties, its seed is poisonous
- fruits which are usually eaten by children cause stomach pain, burning sensation in the throat and
vomiting
*Many cases of tuba-tuba poisoning which led to death of some have been reported in several areas in the
country.
4. Manihot esculenta (cassava) – contains hydrocyanic acid, if boiled with its bark on it can be poisonous
*It is advised that during cooking, the pot cover should be removed for the cyanogas to escape.
*Do not eat any part of a plant which you are not familiar with.
5. Echinochloa crus-galli (dawa-dawa) and Digitaria sanguinalis (saka-saka) – weeds which are alternative hosts to
abaca and corn mosaic viruses.
- often grow along with food crops, compete for nutrients needed by the latter. Such competition results in
decreased harvest.
8. Kantutai/coronitas/baho-baho, and Hantalakaw/malasili – contain chemicals that can be fatal to animals
9. Morning glory – host to the snout beetle (sweet potato weevil) that greatly lessen sweet potato harvest
10. Dieffenbachia maculata (dumbcane) – an ornamental house and garden plant, can be dangerous to children
- the leaves and stem with its bitter and poisonous juice burns the mouth
- causes swelling of the tongue that can affect speech and block the air passage that may lead to death

Harmful Plants
5. Sorghum – cause cyanide poisoning in cows and other livestock
6. Jatropha curcas (tuba-tuba/tubang bakod) – popular due to its being an alternative source of bio-fuel
- known to have medicinal properties, its seed is poisonous
- fruits which are usually eaten by children cause stomach pain, burning sensation in the throat and
vomiting
*Many cases of tuba-tuba poisoning which led to death of some have been reported in several areas in the
country.
5. Manihot esculenta (cassava) – contains hydrocyanic acid, if boiled with its bark on it can be poisonous
*It is advised that during cooking, the pot cover should be removed for the cyanogas to escape.
*Do not eat any part of a plant which you are not familiar with.
6. Echinochloa crus-galli (dawa-dawa) and Digitaria sanguinalis (saka-saka) – weeds which are alternative hosts to
abaca and corn mosaic viruses.
- often grow along with food crops, compete for nutrients needed by the latter. Such competition results in
decreased harvest.
11. Kantutai/coronitas/baho-baho, and Hantalakaw/malasili – contain chemicals that can be fatal to animals
12. Morning glory – host to the snout beetle (sweet potato weevil) that greatly lessen sweet potato harvest
13. Dieffenbachia maculata (dumbcane) – an ornamental house and garden plant, can be dangerous to children
- the leaves and stem with its bitter and poisonous juice burns the mouth
- causes swelling of the tongue that can affect speech and block the air passage that may lead to death