Min's Museum

All organisms in the Kingdom Plantae contain eukaryotic cells. Thus, they enclose membrane-bound organelles, including nuclei that contain the genetic material. Mostly all of the plants are photosynthetic and possess chloroplasts with chlorophyll-a, chlorophyll-b, and carotenoids as the photosynthetic pigments. They also have cell walls made of cellulose. Plants' life cycles alternate between the sporophyte (diploid) phase and the gametophyte (haploid) phase. Most plants live on land during their life cycle.

Divergent Event

500 million years ago, lang plants evolved from phtosynthetic, aquatic ancestors - Chlorophyta. The first appearnace of land plants was 475 million years ago. The first appearance of flowering plants was 130 million years ago.

Plants are multicellular organisms.

Plants are autotrophic with a very few exceptions.

Autotrophic

Heterotrophic

Daisies - through photosynthesis, plants produce their own food

Monotropa uniflora (Indian Pipe) - some heterotrophic plants that lack chlorophyll (therefore nonphotosynthetic) feeds from other organisms. The Indian Pipe feeds indirectly from roots of green plants

Plants do not have a digestive system because all of them are autotrophs and therefore produce their own food through photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis can be considered the "respiratory" process of plants. However, plants do not acquire specific nervous, circulatry, or respiratory systems.

Plants reproduce sexually. However, reproduction varies greatly by the specific phylum. Please select the desired phylum below to learn about its reproduction.