Custom «Plant Groups» Essay Paper Sample

Plants are classified into 2 main categories. They are either non vascular or vascular. Almost eighty percent of all plants are vascular. Vascular plants are also referred to as higher plants or tracheophytes, and have tissues which are lignified in order to conduct minerals, water and products produced during photosynthesis. Examples of vascular plants include club mosses, ferns, conifers, flowering plants, as well as other gymnosperms. Tracheophytaand Tracheobionta, are scientific terms which refer to vascular plants but non of the names is commonly used.

Vascular plants are classified into 2 distinct groups:

1) Seedless plants such as ferns.

2) Vascular plants that have Naked seed such as conifers.

Vascular plants are mainly notable by 2 major characteristics:

a) They have tissues which are vascular; these tubes circulate nutrients to every part the plant. This characteristic enables vascular plants to develop and grow to a bigger size as compared to non-vascular plants, which do not have these particular transporting tissues and are consequently limited to fairly small sizes.

b) The primary generation stage in vascular plants is the sporophyte, which has 2 sets of chromosomes within every cell which are diploid. The gametophytes and the germ cells are haploid. The primary generation point in plants which are non-vascular is generally the gametophyte, which contains a single set of chromosomes within each cell. These plants usually have a diploid capsule and the spore stalk.

One likely system for the supposed change from importance of the haploid generation to the diploid generation is because of their superior effectiveness in spore dispersal since they have a much more complex diploid composition. The xylem or phloem is used to move water. Xylem transports inorganic solutes and water upward from the roots to the leaves; on the other hand phloem is used in transportation of organic solutes all over the plant.

Non-vascular plants is a common name for plants which do not have a xylem and phloem (vascular system). While such plants lack these specific tissues, several non-vascular plants have particular tissues for water transportation. Nonvascular plants have a gametophyte generation which is dominant while the sporophytes develop attached to the gametophytes so as to take in materials and water. Non-vascular plants use spores to reproduce.

None Vascular plants are divided into several categories. These groups are: the Bryophyta also called Bryophytes (mosses), the Anthocerotophyta such as hornworts and the Marchantiophyta for example liverworts. In these classifications, the principal class is the gametophytes (haploid), which have a diploid segment attached to the sporophyte, composed of a sporangium and a stalk. Since these plants do not have water-transporting vessels, they are incapable of growing to the size of most vascular plants.