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Learning about Biodiversity Veld & Flora FACTSHEET CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS

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THE GREEN KINGDOM NON VASCULAR

VASCULAR PLANTS
All living organisms, from bacteria to Baobabs, share certain features. PLANTS
They all replicate using DNA, and convert the information stored in their
DNA into products for building cellular machinery using fats, proteins and SEEDLESS SEEDLESS SEED-PRODUCING
carbohydrates. Scientists work out the relationship between all living things
by comparing outward appearances, and more importantly, microscopic
cellular composition, and by grouping evolutionarily close organisms BRYOPHYTES PTERIDOPHYTES GYMNOSPERMS ANGIOSPERMS
together on an evolutionary, or phylogenetic, tree. At the base of the tree
is the ‘Last Universal Common Ancestor’ and at the very tips are the twigs
which represent all species – living and extinct.

The factsheet in the September 2012 issue of Veld & Flora, vol. 98(3),
outlines the basics of biodiversity classification, in which all life forms
are grouped into three Domains – Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya. The
latter contains five Kingdoms: Protozoa, Chromista, Plantae, Fungi and
Animalia. Be aware that classification schemes are constantly changing and
shifting as new discoveries are made, especially in the ‘nano-world’. In this
factsheet we zoom in on plants and show how they are grouped within the
Kingdom Plantae and placed on the phylogenetic tree according to shared
characteristics that reflect evolutionary relationships. 2 3 4 5

THE KINGDOM PLANTAE Hepaticophyta (liverworts) Psilotophyta (whisk ferns) CONE-BEARING FLOWER-BEARING
Anthocerotophyta (hornworts) Lycophyta (club mosses) Ginkophyta (ginkgos) Anthophyta (flowering plants)
The most important feature of plants is a group of pigments called chlorophyll,
which gives plants their green colour. Plants use chlorophyll to capture light energy, Bryophyta (mosses) Equisetophyta (horsetails) Cycadophyta (cycads) The flowering plants, which contain
which fuels the manufacture of food in the form of carbohydrates. Plant life cycles seeds that are entirely enclosed in the
all include an alternation of generations (a haploid-diploid life cycle). Bryophytes are primitive plants that Polypodiophyta (ferns) Gnetophyta (welwitschias) protective ovaries that form the fruit
were amongst the first to colonise Pinophyta (conifers) when they mature, are the dominant
Most plants are terrestrial. The first plants appear to have evolved from the green Pteridophytes dominated the Earth
terrestrial habitats 700-450 million terrestrial plants today. They evolved
algae, which have enough physiological features of photosynthesis in common 350 million years ago. Like mosses, Gymnosperms are non-flowering,
years ago. They lack an effective about 145 million years ago. Flowering
with modern plants to indicate this. One group of green algae, the charophytes these primitive vascular plants need cone-bearing seed plants that
vascular system and thus form low- plants are traditionally divided into
(Charophyta; which include Spirogyra), is more closely related to plants than to the to grow in moist habitats because evolved about 365 million years ago
growing, dense cushions on the two groups, based on the number
other green algae. the sperm needs a film of water in
ground, on rocks, buildings and on and dominated the Earth from 245 of cotyledons on the embryo. Those
The fact that all plants have stomata except the liverworts (Hepaticophyta) suggests the bark of trees. They require an order to reach the eggs in the female – 65 million years ago. There are with two cotyledons are called
that liverworts were the earliest group to diverge. Other features used to distinguish external water film to reproduce as reproductive organs. a few hundred species that occur dicotyledons (dicots) while those with
different groups within the plant kingdom and to work out their evolutionary the sperm need to swim from the today, and are mostly evergreen only one are called monocotyledons
relationships, are reproductive strategies (spores, seeds, cones, fruits or flowers, male reproductive organs to the eggs shrubs and trees with needle-like (monocots). Current hypotheses
sexual or asexual reproduction), and the presence or absence of features such as in the female organs. leaves. They produce cones instead about the origin and diversification
vascular tissue (specialized tissue for transporting water and nutrients – xylem and of flowers. The seeds are naked in of flowering plants suggest that the
phloem), leaves and roots. the sense that, at one stage of their dicots are actually the ancestral group
development they are not enclosed from which the monocots (and others)
within an ovary inside the cone. evolved. Presently, four main groups
are recognized: the basal angiosperms
ANCESTRAL (a primitive group containing
waterlilies), magnoliids, monocots
1
GREEN ALGAE and eudicots. The latter group have
a very distinctive pollen structure
and comprise well over half the living
angiosperms today.

READ MORE intertidal green seaweeds of the Cape LINKS TO THE CURRICULUM PHOTOGRAPHS / IMAGES 3. The fern Todea barbara with spore capsules TEXT adapted by Caroline Voget from the
Peninsula. Veld & Flora 86(3), 124–125. on the underside of the leaf. Photo: Diane book The Story of Life and the Environment:
This factsheet follows on from the Veld Grade 10, Life Sciences, Strand 4: Diversity, 1. The green alga Cyanophora paradoxa Turner, iSpot. An African perspective by Jo van As, Johann
& Flora Factsheet on Classification in the Van Jaarsveld, E. 2000. Welwitschia mirabilis. Change and Continuity. Topic: Biodiversity and represents the earliest lineage to branch
4. A dinosaur in amongst the cycads du Preez, Leslie Brown and Nico Smit,
September 2012 issue of Veld & Flora 98(3). Veld & Flora 86(4), 176-179. classification, Content: Classification Schemes. off from what became today's land plants.
(Encephalartos latifrons) at Kirstenbosch. published by Struik Nature.
Available online: http://labpages.blogspot. Carnegie Institution. ‘Green Algae: Drawing by Susanne Ruemmele, Bhattacharya
com/2012/08/volume-983-september-2012. GRADE 11, Life Sciences, Strand 1: Diversity, Photo: C. Voget.
The Nexus of Plant-Animal Ancestry.’ Lab. (Reproduced from Albert-Ludwigs-
html. Change and Continuity. Topic: Biodiversity Universität Freiburg. "Origin of photosynthesis 5. The daisy Arctotheca calendula with bee
Science Daily, 12 October 2007. Download these and other resources from
of Plants. Learners should have a basic revealed by a 'living fossil'”). ScienceDaily, 17 pollinator. Photo: C. Voget.
Hitchcock, W. 2014. The art of plant Available online: www.sciencedaily.com/ the Veld & Flora LAB Pages:
understanding of Phylogenetic Trees as February 2012.
identification, Veld & Flora 100(2), 60-61. releases/2007/10/071011142628.htm.
reconstructions of evolutionary pathways.
http://labpages.blogspot.com.
Maneveldt, G.W. & R. Frans. 2000. Of sea The Phylogeny of Life. Available online: www. Content: Grouping of bryophytes, pterido- 2. Moss showing spore capsule on a
lettuces and green sea intestines: Common ucmp.berkeley.edu/alllife/threedomains.html. phytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms. supporting stalk (seta). Photo: C. Voget.