Plant Classification
Plant Classification
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Plants are grouped into Divisions, Classes, and
Orders based on shared characteristics
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Vessels to carry water & nutrients
Seed Production
Flower Production
Type of seed produced
Vascular or Nonvascular
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Most plants have vessels for transporting
water and nutrients within the plant.
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These are called VASCULAR Plants
A few plants do not have these vessels.
These small plants depend on diffusion to
carry water from one part to another.
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These are called NONVASCULAR Plants
NONVASCULAR Plants
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Some examples of Nonvascular plants are:
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Mosses
Liverworts
Hornworts
Seed Producing or Seedless
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Most plants reproduce by making seeds during part of
their life cycle.
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These are known as SEED Plants
A seed is produced from an egg cell that is fertilized by
sperm from pollen grains.
Some plants do not produce seeds.
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These are known as SEEDLESS Plants.
They reproduce by making SPORES which grow into a
free-living GAMETOPHYTE.
The Gametophyte then makes egg and sperm cells that
combine and grow into a new plant (the SPOROPHYTE).
Seedless Plants
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Some examples of seedless plants are:
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Ferns
Horsetails
Club Mosses
Seedless plants used to be more abundant and
larger.
Much of the COAL we burn today is made of
the remains of seedless plants that grew, lived
and died about 300 million years ago.
Life Cycle of a Seedless Plant
Flowering or Non-Flowering
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Some plants produce their seeds inside a
flower structure that then produces a fruit.
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These are called flowering plants or
ANGIOSPERMS
Some plants produce seeds that are not
protected by a fruit, but may develop inside a
cone.
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These plants are known as GYMNOSPERMS
Gymnosperms
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There are four groups of gymnosperms
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Conifers (Pines, Spruce, Firs, etc.)
Ginkgoes
Cycads
Gnetophytes
Gymnosperm Life Cycle
Monocots or Dicots
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Angiosperms (flowering plants) make seeds
that are protected by a fruit.
The seeds have stored food for the baby plant
to rely on to get started in life.
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This stored food is called a COTYLEDON
Flowering plants have seeds with either:
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ONE Cotyledon – MONOCOTS, or
TWO Cotyledons – DICOTS
MONOCOTS
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Monocots have seeds with one cotyledon.
Examples of Monocots:
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Corn
Grasses
Lilies
Other characteristics of Monocots:
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Parallel veins in leaves
Flower parts in threes
Bundles of vascular tissue scattered throughout the
stem
DICOTS
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Dicots have seeds with TWO Cotyledons
Examples of Dicots
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Beans
Apples
Maples
Other characteristics of Dicots:
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Branching Veins in Leaves
Flower parts in Fours or Fives
Bundles of vascular tissue in a ring inside the stem
Life Cycle of an Angiosperm