The plant kingdom: from algae to flowering plants
Look at fourteen plants, from pond silk and moss to niuro, khote salla and rice. Check their bodies and how they reproduce, and sort them into the five groups of Kingdom Plantae.
Core concept
Kingdom Plantae is divided by body and reproduction: algae have no true roots, stem or leaves; bryophytes have simple leaves but no roots or vessels; pteridophytes have roots, stems, leaves and vessels but make spores; gymnosperms make naked seeds; angiosperms make flowers and seeds inside fruits
Topic: Classification
All plants make their own food by photosynthesis: How green plants make their own food from light, water and carbon dioxide. All key words, but they are very different. Botanists sort Kingdom Plantae step by step. Algae, such as the green pond silk (Spirogyra) in paddy fields, have a simple body with no true roots, stem or leaves. Bryophytes, the mosses and liverworts, have a tiny stem and leaves but no true roots and no vessels, so they stay small and live in damp places. Tracheophytes have vessels (xylem and phloem) to carry water and food, so they can grow tall. Among them, pteridophytes such as ferns and horsetails reproduce by spores. Seed plants are divided into gymnosperms, such as pine, whose seeds lie open on cone scales, and angiosperms, the flowering plants, whose seeds are inside a fruit.
What you will learn
- Name the main groups of Kingdom Plantae.
- Classify plants using their body, vessels and way of reproducing.
- Distinguish spores from seeds, and naked seeds from seeds in fruits.
- Give Nepali examples of each group.
Before you start
- Know the five kingdoms of living things.
Materials
- Pond water with algae, a piece of moss, a fern leaf with brown spots underneath, a pine cone, a mustard flower
Equipment
- A hand lens and, if possible, a microscope
Procedure
- Pick a plant's card and look at its body and how it reproduces.
- Do this for at least eight plants.
- Sort every plant into its group.