Resource: Plant kingdom
Algae
These plants have no roots, stems or leaves. All are found in water or moist places. There are a number of different kinds:
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Green algae – These may be single cells or groups of cells forming strands or sheets. The bright green ‘slime’ you often see in ponds or puddles is a green alga.
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Red algae – Usually reddish in colour, these algae live in the sea. The best place to see them is at low tide on rocky headlands. You will also find bits washed up on the beach along the high tide line.
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Brown algae – These are the big, tough, brown seaweeds like the giant kelp.
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Golden algae, golden-green algae, euglenoids – These three groups are microscopic forms.
Mosses and liverworts
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Small terrestrial (live on land) plants with no true roots, leaves or stems. Instead, they have leaf-like and root-like structures.
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Grow in damp environments. Commonly found on fallen logs and stones in rainforests and along creek margins.
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Reproduce by spores, which are dispersed by the wind.
Ferns
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Small to quite large terrestrial (live on land) plants with true leaves, stems and roots.
 Their leaves unroll in a characteristic way from a ‘fiddlehead’ and are called fronds.
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Reproduce by spores, which are released from brown spots on the underside of fronds and are then dispersed by the wind. Spores need water to germinate.
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Ferns can live in quite dry areas, but are more common in moist places.
Conifers
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Medium to large evergreen woody plants with true roots, stems and leaves.
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Conifers have needles or spiky leaves.
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Reproduce by seeds, which contain an embryo plant and a food store for its initial growth.
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Seeds are produced in a woody cone, which gives the group its name – conifer or ‘cone bearer’.
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Able to live in very dry and/or cold environments.
Flowering plants
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Small to large plants with true roots, stems and leaves.
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Reproduce by seeds.
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Seeds are produced in flowers.
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Found in almost every terrestrial and freshwater environment.
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Flowering plants form a very large and diverse group, which is divided into two sub-groups
– Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons.
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Monocotyledons are distinguished by:
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Strap-like leaves with parallel veins.
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Flower parts in threes or multiples of three.
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Stems are not woody and do not thicken with age.
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Many equal-size roots.
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One seed leaf in each seed.
Eco-Online Nova Scotia – Monitoring Biodiversity

Resource: Plant kingdom
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This group includes the grasses (such as wheat, rice, other grains and bamboo), sedges, lilies, onions, irises, orchids and palms (including bananas).
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Dicotyledons are distinguished by:
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Leaves with a stalk, mid vein and a network of branching veins.
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Flower parts in fives (sometimes fours) or multiples of five.
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Woody stems that thicken with age. So the stem is thicker at the base and thinner at the top.
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One large taproot, with other roots branching from it.
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Two seed leaves in each seed.
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This huge group includes all the woody trees (which are not conifers), most vegetables, most fruits, many flowers and herbs.
Eco-Online Nova Scotia – Monitoring Biodiversity