III.

KINGDOM PLANTAE
Plants and green algae called charophytes are thought to have evolved from a common ancestor.
Like plants, charophytes are photosynthetic eukaryotes, and many species have complex,
multicellular bodies.

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION. Plant roots provide anchorage and absorb water and mineral
nutrients from the soil. Above ground, a plant’s stems bear leaves, which obtain CO2 from the air and
light from the sun, enabling them to perform photosynthesis. Growth producing regions of cell
division, called apical meristems, are found near the tips of roots and stems. The elongation and
branching of a plant’s roots and stems maximize exposure to the resources in the soil and air. Most
plants, including ferns, pines, and flowering plants, have vascular tissue, a network of thick-walled
cells joined into narrow tubes that extend throughout the plant body. There are two types of vascular
tissue. Xylem includes dead cells that form microscopic pipes conveying water and minerals up from
the roots. Phloem, which consists entirely of living cells, distributes sugars throughout the plant. In
contrast to plants with elaborate vascular tissues, mosses lack a complex transport system (although
some mosses do have simple vascular tissue). With limited means for distributing water and minerals
from soil to the leaves, the height of nonvascular plants is severely restricted. The cell walls of some
plant tissues, including xylem, are thickened and reinforced by a chemical called lignin. The absence
of lignified cell walls in mosses and other plants that lack vascular tissue is another limitation on their
height. Plants, however, must keep their gametes and developing embryos from drying out in the air.
Like the earliest land plants, mosses and ferns produce gametes in male and female structures called
gametangia (singular, gametangium), which consist of protective jackets of cells surrounding the
gamete-producing cells. The egg remains in the female gametangium and is fertilized there by a
sperm that swims through a film of water. As a result, mosses and ferns can only reproduce in a
moist environment. Pines and flowering plants have pollen grains, structures that contain the sperm-
producing cells. Pollen grains are carried close to the egg by wind or animals; moisture is not required
for bringing sperm and egg together. In all plants, the fertilized egg (zygote) develops into an embryo
while attached to and nourished by the parent plant. This multicellular, dependent embryo is the basis
for designating plants as embryophytes (phyte means “plant”), distinguishing them from algae.
The life cycles of all plants involve the alternation of a haploid generation, which produces eggs and
sperm, and a diploid generation, which produces spores within protective structures called sporangia
(singular, sporangium). A spore is a cell that can develop into a new organism without fusing with
another cell.

1. These plants, which are informally called bryophytes, resemble other plants in having apical
meristems and embryos that are retained on the parent plant, but they lack true roots and leaves.
Without lignified cell walls, bryophytes with an upright growth habit lack support.

2. Their lignin-hardened vascular tissues provide strong support, enabling stems to stand upright and
grow tall on land. Two clades of vascular plants are informally called seedless vascular plants. the
lycophytes (such as club mosses) and the widespread monilophytes (ferns and their relatives). A fern
has well-developed roots and rigid stems. Ferns are common in temperate forests, but they are most
diverse in the tropics. In some tropical species, called tree ferns, upright stems can grow several
meters tall. Like bryophytes, however, ferns and club mosses require moist conditions for fertilization,
and they disperse their offspring as spores that are carried by air currents.

3. Seeds and pollen are key adaptations that improved the ability of plants to diversify in terrestrial
habitats. A seed consists of an embryo packaged with a food supply within a protective covering. This
survival packet facilitates wide dispersal of plant embryos. Gymnosperms (from the Greek gymnos,
naked, and sperma, seed) were among the earliest seed plants. Seeds of gymnosperms are said to
be “naked” because they are not produced in specialized chambers. The largest clade of
gymnosperms is the conifers, consisting mainly of cone bearing trees, such as pine, spruce, and fir.
(The term conifer means “cone-bearing.”) Some examples of gymnosperms that are less common are
the ornamental ginkgo tree, the palmlike cycads, and desert shrubs in the genus Ephedra.
Gymnosperms flourished alongside the dinosaurs in the Mesozoic era.

4. The most recent major episode in plant evolution was the appearance of flowering plants, or
angiosperms (from the Greek angion, container, and sperma, seed). Flowers are complex
reproductive structures that develop seeds within protective chambers.

Four key adaptations for life on land distinguish the main lineages of the plant kingdom.
(1) Dependent embryos are present in all plants.
(2) Lignified vascular tissues mark a lineage that gave rise to most living plants.
(3) Seeds are found in a lineage that includes all living gymnosperms and angiosperms and that
dominates the plant kingdom today.
(4) Flowers mark the angiosperm lineage.

Plants are multicellular eukaryotic organisms that are all autotrophic. It includes mosses, ferns,
horsetails, gymnosperms and angiosperms. Algae used to be classified under the plant kingdom.

Fields of botany:

1. Plant Anatomy – study of how structures of plants relate to functions.

2. Plant Morphology – plant life cycles, how plants reproduce, study of evolution of plants and
how anatomy and life cycles have changed.
3. Plant Physiology – how plants function; life processes such as photosynthesis, respiration,
transport of water and nutrients, flowering, and hormone action.
4. Plant Ecology – relationships of plants with other plants and other organisms; how plants
meet their needs for survival, human impact on plant communities.
5. Plant Genetics – inheritance and variation in plants; biotechnology, genetic engineering.
6. Plant Systematics – evolutionary history of plants, classification of plants.

I. Nonvascular Plants

Characteristics of nonvascular plants

Nonvascular plants are small, low growing plants without vascular or conducting tissues. Since they
have no vascular tissues, they are usually found in places where there is water or a lot of moisture, in
moist soil, bark of trees and even rocks.

1. Phylum Bryophyta are represented by mosses. Mosses are found in many places in the
world, on moist places such as swamps, river banks, and on forest floor. They have root-like
structures called rhizoids that hold the plant in place, absorb water and nutrients. These low-
growing plants have no vascular tissues to conduct water and nutrients hence these
substances diffuse from cell to cell. There is alternation of generation where the sporophyte
part produces a capsule. Inside the capsule are spores that germinate. The stemlike and
leaflike part of the plant is the gametophyte stage. Water is involved in the transfer of sperm
from the male plant to fertilize the egg in the female plants. Mosses do not produce seeds.

2. Phylum Hepaticophyta (liverworts). The plants have leaflike structures that are almost
flat attached on moist soil or rock surface. The gametophyte stage absorbs nutrients
and water directly from the surrounding. When mature, the leaflike structures produce
umbrella-like tiny green structures. Inside the umbrella-like structures are parts that
 produce the sex cells. Asexual reproduction is by gemnae. Gemnae are small round
structures that contain haploid cells. These haploid cells can undergo mitosis to
produce new plants. The reproductive success of liverworts is highly dependent on
moisture available in its habitat.

3. Phylum Anthocerophyta are represented by hornworts. Hornworts are found in moist

places most often together with mosses and liverworts. It can be identified in the soil
surface when they produce the sporophytes-tiny green horn-like structures above the
mass of leaf like structures.

II. Seedless Vascular Plants

1. Phylum Psilotophyta are the simplest vascular plants. They have no true roots and
leaves. The stem has small, scalelike green tissue called enations. The stem is
photosynthetic. Sporangia are found along the sides of the stem. Rhizomes have
rhizoids that absorb nutrients from the soil. Two living genera, Psilotum and Tmesipteris.

2. Phylum Arthrophyta are commonly called horsetails because the stem looks like tail
of a horse. It contains crystals of silica. The leaves are arranged in whorls along the
stem. Plant height may reach up to one meter. Equisetum is the only living genus of
this phylum.

3. Phylum Lycophyta. This includes the club mosses, spike mosses and quillworts.
Fossil records show that these organisms dominated the earth’s first forests, which
now constitute the huge deposit of coal. Present day club mosses like the
Lycopodium, look like a small pine tree, hence it is sometimes called “ground pine”.
All are herbaceous and have microphylls. They usually thrive best in moist forest floor
and stream banks where some amount of sunlight reach the ground.

4. Phylum Pterophyta – are represented by ferns. Ferns thrive best in moist places, or
seasonally wet, little light in forest, and along stream banks. Plant height varies from
a few millimeters to as high as 25 meters. Ferns are the most diverse of the seedless
vascular plants with about 12 000 known species.

III. Vascular Plants with Seeds (Gymnosperms-non flowering)

1. Phylum Ginkgophyta. The only living species of this phylum-Gingko biloba. The
deciduous tree can grow to about 30 meters, produce pollen in one plant and female
cones protected by fleshy covering in another plant. Gingko plants grow today seem
to be similar to Gingko fossils.

2. Phylum Gnetophyta. Three living genera of gnetophytes – Gnetum, Welwitschia and

Ephedra.

3. Phylum Cycadophyta – these are the cycads, palm-like, stout and erect trunk, leaves
arranged like rosette at the upper part of the trunk, leaflets are small, stiff and dark
green. They produce male and female inflorescence in different plants.

4. Phylum Coniferophyta – the conifers are the most commonly known of the
gymnosperms. They are tall trees, with spreading branches, evergreen needle-like
leaves may be in groups or clusters called fascicles. The conifers have adaptations
on their trunks, leaves and seeds to survive harsh conditions in cold places where
they thrive. The tallest conifer is the coast redwood Sequoia semperverens and the
most massive is the General Sherman Tree, a giant Sequioa that is found in the United
States.