Download Chapter 4 Classifying Plant Groups

Chapter 4
Classifying Plant Groups
By Jenna Grabill
How Plants Are Classified
• Scientists have identified more than 260,000
kinds of plant.
– They think even more are to be discovered.
• 1,000,000 kinds of plants may exist that have
not been found and named.
– Most of these plants live in the tropical rain forest.
• Scientists classify plants by putting them into
smaller groups .
– They group them by body parts-seeds, tubes,
roots, stems, and leaves.
– Main group of plants are seed plants, ferns, and
mosses.
History of Classification
• Classification of plants started more
than 2,000 years ago.
• The Greek philosopher Aristotle first
classified plants and animals.
Vascular and Nonvascular
Plants
• Seed plants and ferns are vascular plants.
– Tubelike cells
– Vascular means “vessel
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– Have well developed leaves, stems, and roots.
• Moses are nonvascular
– Do not have tubelike cells.
– Short and must have constant contact with
moisture.
Angiosperms
• Most species of plants are
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angiosperms, or
flowering plats.
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– The word angiosperm is made from the
Greek word angeion.
• A capsule, or fruit , protects the seeds of
angiosperms. The fruit forms form part
of the flower.
– Flowers come in many shapes and colors.
Dicots and Monocots
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• Angiosperms are divided into two kinds
of plants, monocots and dicots.
• Most angiosperms are dicots.
– Dicots have two cotyledons inside the seed
that contain food for the developing plant.
– Monocots only have on cotyledon.
Gymnosperms
• Nonflowering seed plants are called
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gymnosperms.
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– Do not
produce
Conifers and Other
Gymnosperms
• There are over 700 species of
gymnosperms.
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– Major group of gymnosperms is conifers.
• Conifers are con-bearing gymnosperms.
Ferns
• The largest group of seedless
vascular plants are ferns.
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– There are over 10,000 species of ferns
in the world.
Mosses
• Scientists have found
over 9,000 species of
mosses.
– Nonvascular plant.
• Leaf and steam like
parts.
– Does not have welldeveloped roots,
steams, and leaves.
• Must live in moist,
shady places because
they do not have
vascular tissue to
transport water.
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