Plants are the eukaryotes that comprise the kingdom Plantae; they are
predominantly photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight,
using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to
produce sugars from carbon dioxide and water, using the green pigment chlorophyll.
Exceptions are parasitic plants that have lost the genes for chlorophyll and
photosynthesis, and obtain their energy from other plants or fungi. Most plants
are multicellular, except for some green algae.
Historically, as in Aristotle's biology, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things
that were not animals, and included algae and fungi. Definitions have narrowed since
then; current definitions exclude fungi and some of the algae. By the definition used in
this article, plants form the clade Viridiplantae (green plants), which consists of
the green algae and the embryophytes or land plants
(hornworts, liverworts, mosses, lycophytes, ferns, conifers and other gymnosperms,
and flowering plants). A definition based on genomes includes the Viridiplantae, along
with the red algae and the glaucophytes, in the clade Archaeplastida.
There are about 380,000 known species of plants, of which the majority, some
260,000, produce seeds. They range in size from single cells to the tallest trees. Green
plants provide a substantial proportion of the world's molecular oxygen; the sugars they
create supply the energy for most of Earth's ecosystems, and other organisms,
including animals, either eat plants directly or rely on organisms which do so.
Grain, fruit, and vegetables are basic human foods and have been domesticated for
millennia. People use plants for many purposes, such as building materials,
ornaments, writing materials, and, in great variety, for medicines. The scientific study of
plants is known as botany, a branch of biology.
Definition
Taxonomic history
Further information: Kingdom (biology) § History
All living things were traditionally placed into one of two groups, plants and animals.
This classification dates from Aristotle (384–322 BC), who distinguished different levels
of beings in his biology,[5] based on whether living things had a "sensitive soul" or like
plants only a "vegetative soul".[6] Theophrastus, Aristotle's student, continued his work in
plant taxonomy and classification.[7] Much later, Linnaeus (1707–1778) created the basis
of the modern system of scientific classification, but retained the animal and
plant kingdoms, naming the plant kingdom the Vegetabilia.[7]
Alternative concepts
When the name Plantae or plant is applied to a specific group of organisms or taxa, it
usually refers to one of four concepts. From least to most inclusive, these four
groupings are:
Name(s) Scope Organisation Description
Plants in the strictest
Land plants, sense include liverworts, hornworts, mo
Plantae sen
also known sses, and vascular plants, as well as
su Multicellular
as Embryophy fossil plants similar to these surviving
strictissimo
ta groups (e.g., Metaphyta Whittaker,
1969,[8] Plantae Margulis, 1971[9]).
Plants in a strict sense include
the green algae, and land plants that
emerged within them,
including stoneworts. The relationships
between plant groups are still being
Green plants,
worked out, and the names given to
also known
them vary considerably.
as Viridiplanta Some unicellul
Plantae sen The clade Viridiplantae encompasses a
e, Viridiphyta, ar, some
su stricto group of organisms that
Chlorobionta multicellular
have cellulose in their cell walls,
or
possess chlorophylls a and b and
Chloroplastida
have plastids bound by only two
membranes that are capable of
photosynthesis and of storing starch.
This clade is the main subject of this
article (e.g., Plantae Copeland, 1956[10]).
Plants in a broad sense comprise the
green plants listed above plus the red
algae (Rhodophyta) and the
glaucophyte algae (Glaucophyta) that
Archaeplastid
Some unicellul store Floridean starch outside
a, also known Plantae sen
ar, some the plastids, in the cytoplasm. This
as Plastida or su lato
multicellular clade includes all of the organisms that
Primoplantae
eons ago acquired their primary
chloroplasts directly by
engulfing cyanobacteria (e.g.,
Plantae Cavalier-Smith, 1981[1]).
Plants in the widest sense included
Old definitions the unrelated groups
Some unicellul
of Plantae sen of algae, fungi and bacteria on older,
ar, some
plant (obsolet su amplo obsolete classifications (e.g. Plantae or
multicellular
e) Vegetabilia Linnaeus
1751,[11] Plantae Haeckel
1866,[12] Metaphyta Haeckel,
1894,[13] Plantae Whittaker, 1969[8]).
Evolution
Diversity
The desmid Cosmarium botrytis is a single cell.
The coast redwood Sequoia sempervirens is up to 120 metres
(380 ft) tall.
There are about 382,000 accepted species of plants,[14] of which the great majority,
some 283,000, produce seeds.[15] The table below shows some species count estimates
of different green plant (Viridiplantae) divisions. About 85–90% of all plants are
flowering plants.[clarification needed] Several projects are currently attempting to collect records
on all plant taxa in online databases, e.g. the World Flora Online.[14][16]
Plants range in scale from single-celled organisms such
as desmids (from 10 micrometres (μm) across) and picozoa (less
than 3 μm across),[17][18] to the largest trees (megaflora) such as the conifer Sequoia
sempervirens (up to 120 metres (380 ft) tall) and the angiosperm Eucalyptus
regnans (up to 100 m (325 ft) tall).[19]
Diversity of living green plant (Viridiplantae) divisions by number of species
Informal No. of living
Division name Common name
group species
Green algae Chlorophyta Green algae (chlorophytes) 3800–4300[20][21]
Green algae
Charophyta 2800–6000[22][23]
(e.g. desmids & stoneworts)
Bryophytes Marchantiophyta Liverworts 6000–8000[24]
Anthocerotophyta Hornworts 100–200[25]
Bryophyta Mosses 12000[26]
Pteridophytes Lycopodiophyta Clubmosses 1200[27]
Polypodiophyta Ferns, whisk ferns & horsetails 11000[27]
Spermatophytes Cycadophyta Cycads 160[28]
(seed plants)
Ginkgophyta Ginkgo 1[29]
Pinophyta Conifers 630[27]
Gnetophyta Gnetophytes 70[27]
Angiospermae Flowering plants 258650[30]
The naming of plants is governed by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae,
fungi, and plants[31] and the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants.[32]
