Plant Kingdom

UNIT 17

PLANT KINGDOM

Learning Objectives

* After the completion of this lesson, students will be able to:

* know the general characteristics of algae.

* classify the types of algae based on the pigmentation.

* know about the salient features, mode of nutrition, classification and the uses of fungi.

* differentiate bryophytes from pteridophytes.

* list out the importance of medicinal plants and their uses.

* understand the classes of angiosperms and their charecteristics.

* tabulate Bentham and Hooker’s classification of seeded plants.

 Introduction

The living organisms found on the earth differ in their structures, habit, habitat, mode of nutrition and physiology. The estimated number of plant species on the earth is 8.7 million (1 million = 10 lakhs). Among them 6.5 million species are living on land and 2. 2 million species are living in the ocean. Out of them 4,00,000 species are flowering plants. The living organisms show lot of similarities and differences so that they can be arranged into many groups systematically. In traditional system of classification, plant kingdom is divided into two sub-kingdoms called non flowering plants (Cryptogams) and flowering plants (Phenerogams). 

Thalophyta, bryophyta and pteridophyt are non flowering plants. In this lesson, we will study about algae, fungi, bryophytes, pteridophytes and classification of plants.