1. Kingdom Plantae

2. General Characteristics
Use photosynthesis to gain energy, therefore autotrophic.
Live in all aquatic and terrestrial habitats except at the poles.
Are the main source of oxygen for the planet
The basis for every food chain or food web

3. Classification of Plantae
Although there are a vast variety of plants in the world, they can all be placed in one of four main groups.
Each large group contains several divisions, which are the rough equivalent to a Phylum.

4. 1) Non-Vascular Plants (Mosses and their relatives)
Three divisions (mosses, hornworts and liverworts).
No vascular tissue, therefore depend on osmosis and diffusion to transport nutrients.
Usually grow in dense mats of low tangled vegetation that can hold water like a sponge, allowing them to survive cold or dry periods.
Have no roots, instead have root-like rhizomes.
Sexual reproduction.

5. Non-vascular Plants Mosses (Bryophytes)
Very successful and widespread as they thrive in such diverse habitats as bogs, tundra, on bare exposed rocks, and in deep shade.
Twice as many species of mosses as there are mammals!
Liverworts (Hepatophytes)
Grow flat, low to the ground and are rarely more than 30 cells thick.
80% are leafy and live in tropical forests and in humid climates.
Thallose liverworts are the other 20%.
Many small chloroplasts per cell.
Hornworts (Anthocerophytes)
Broad, flat and are commonly blue-green in colour.
One large chloroplast per cell

6. 2) Seedless Vascular Plants (Ferns and their relatives)
came about 300 million years ago
developed the vascular tissue that allowed them to grow tall

7. Seedless Vascular Plants
Whisk Ferns (Psilotophytes)
Look like small green whisk brooms
No leaves or roots
Short rhizomes, which are horizontal, underground stems.
Produce spores.
Club Mosses (Lycopodophytes)
Small evergreen-looking plants that grow in dense mats in moist temperate or tropical forests.
Not related to true mosses!
Have true roots and stems.

8. Seedless Vascular Plants
Horsetails (Sphenophytes)
Once included tree-sized members, but now just smaller plants (1 m).
Often found in damp areas or along roadsides.
Can be used to scour pots.
Have silica in their cells, which accounts for the roughness.
Can be made into a shampoo to combat head lice.
Ferns (Pteridophytes)
Dominated the forests during the Carboniferous period ( mya).
Most familiar and successful of the seedless vascular plants.
Have roots, stems, a waxy epidermis that reduces water loss by evaporation and stomata in their leaves for gas exchange.
Ferns produce millions or even billions of spores in their lifetime.
Have fronds, which are seed leaves that grow up from rhizomes.

9. 3) Gymnosperms (Conifers and their relatives)
disperse by means of seeds
reproduce sexually without needing water
have seeds that are exposed on the surface of cone scales
gymnosperm means ‘naked seed’
includes cone-bearing trees: pines, firs, spruce, yew, cedars, redwood and many other large trees.
Also includes the cycadophytes, gnetophytes and ginkgophytes.

10. Gymnosperms
Conifers
Form vast forests in the colder regions of the world
As well as reproducing without water, they have bark to prevent water loss.
The pyramidal shape of many conifers helps snow and ice slide off the tree reducing branch breakings.
The needle like leaves have a thick, waxy cuticle and sunken stomata, which reduce the rate of evaporation.
These are evergreens, which are continually losing and replacing needles all year round.
Gnetophyta
Very rare, found in southern Africa

11. Gymnosperms Cycadophyta
100 species in the tropics, once dominated the earth.
Short, palm-like trees with scaly trunks.
Ginkgophyta
The only living species is Ginko biloba, which was common during the Jurassic period (200 mya).
Cultivated in Asian temples for hundreds of years, which helped protect against extinction.

12. 4) Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)
Plants that protect their seeds within the body of a fruit are called angiosperms or flowering plants.
Appeared on earth more than 150 mya.
Include vines, grasses, shrubs, trees and water plants.
Grow everywhere on land from tundra to tropics.
Divided into monocots (1 seed leaf) and dicots (2 seed leaves)
Sexual reproduction by pollination. Use wind, water, animals, bats, birds and insects as pollen carriers.