Features of the Plant Kingdom

You should be able to:

• List the different phyla of the plant kingdom.

• List the main visible features of monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous flowering plants.

The Plant Kingdom

What you know already:

• Cell walls are made of cellulose.

• Some parts of plants are green.

Why are plants green?

• They have chloroplasts.

• Chloroplasts contain a green pigment calleschlorophyll.

• Chlorophyll absorbs energy from sunlight.

• The plant uses this energy to make Glucose.

• This process is called photosynthesis.

Phyla of the plant kingdom

There are 4 main phyla in the plant kingdom:

• Mosses:

– simple leaves and stem.

– They shed spores.

Phyla of the plant kingdom

• Conifers:

– Cone-bearing trees and shrubs.

– Seeds but no fruits.

– Leaves are like needles.

Phyla of the plant kingdom

• Ferns:

– Plants with roots, stems and leaves.

– They have leaves called fronds.

– They don’t produce flowers.

– They reproduce by spores.

Phyla of the plant kingdom

Flowering plants:

• Plants with roots, stems and leaves.

• Reproduce sexually by means of flowers and seeds.

• Seeds are produced in the ovary, in the flower.

Flowering plants are classified into two groups:

Monocotyledonous plants

• 1 cotyledon

• strap like leaves

• parallel veins

• flower parts divisible by 3

• example: kaffir lily

Flowering plants are classified into two groups:

Dicotyledonous plants

• 2 cotyledons

• broad leaves

• branching veins

• flower parts divisible by 4 or 5

Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons

Comparing monocotyledons and dicotyledons:

Feature monocotyledon dicotyledon

Number of cotyledons 1 2

Leaf shape strap like broad

Vein pattern parallel branching

Flower parts divisible by: 3 4 or 5

Example Kaffir lily Hibiscus

Which plant is a monocotyledon and which is a dicotyledon?

dicotyledon monocotyledon