Question

Give the outline for kingdom Plantae.

Answer 1

Hint: Five kingdom classification was given by R H Whittaker. The kingdoms were named as Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia. This classification was based on properties like cell structure, mode of nutrition, reproduction and the phylogenetic relationships. Plantae kingdom is classified into five sub groups.

Complete answer:
- Kingdom Plantae mainly constitutes all the plants. They are multicellular, eukaryotic and autotrophic in nature.
- Their cell wall is rigid. They have chloroplast and chlorophyll which is extremely essential for photosynthesis.
- They are further divided into 5 subgroups. Each of them will be explained in detail below.

> Thallophyta: As the name suggests, the body of a plant is like thallus. Thallophyta do not have proper differentiated body structure. The plant body structure is very simple. Examples of thallophyta include red, green and brown algae. Common examples are Volvox, Spirogyra, Ulothrix and others.

> Bryophyta: These are the “Amphibians of plant kingdom” because their primary requirement is water to perform sexual reproduction. They lack vascular tissues. The plants appear to have structures like root, stem and leaf. One can find them in shady and moist places. Examples are Funaria, Sphagnum, and Marchantia. They include mosses and liverworts.

> Pteridophyta: Their plant body is well differentiated into stem, root and leaves. The Vascular system is present and so conduction of water and other substances can be efficiently done. Examples are- Selaginella, Equisetum and Pteris.

> Gymnosperms: They have naked seeds which aren’t enclosed within fruit. Plant body is properly differentiated along with vascular tissues. Some examples are Cycas, Pinus, and Ephedra.

> Angiosperms: Their seeds are enclosed within fruit. They differ very much in size. Wolffia is an example that is very small in size whereas on the other hand there is Eucalyptus which are about 100 m tall. Further divisions of angiosperms include monocot and dicots where difference is based on number of cotyledons. Some examples are rose, mango, wheat etc.

Note: Few characteristic features of Plant Kingdom are: They have photosynthetic pigments. They are stationary and they can reproduce sexually as well as asexually.