Origin of the word plant

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English plante, from Old English plante (“young tree or shrub, herb newly planted”), from Latin planta (“sprout, shoot, cutting”). Broader sense of «any vegetable life, vegetation generally» is from Old French plante. Doublet of clan, borrowed through Celtic languages.

The verb is from Middle English planten, from Old English plantian (“to plant”), from Latin plantāre, later influenced by Old French planter. Compare also Dutch planten (“to plant”), German pflanzen (“to plant”), Swedish plantera (“to plant”), Icelandic planta (“to plant”).

Pronunciation[edit]

• (New Zealand, Received Pronunciation) enPR: plänt, IPA^(key): /plɑːnt/, [pʰl̥ɑːnt]
• (General Australian, US, Canada, Northern England) enPR: plănt, IPA^(key): /plænt/, [pʰl̥ænt]
• (æ-tensing) IPA^(key): [pʰl̥eənt]
• Hyphenation: plant
• Rhymes: -ɑːnt, -ænt

Noun[edit]

plant (plural plants)

1. (botany) An organism that is not an animal, especially an organism capable of photosynthesis. Typically a small or herbaceous organism of this kind, rather than a tree.

   • 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 217:

     In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual. Many genes with reproductive roles also have antibacterial and immune functions, which indicate that the threat of microbial attack on the sperm or egg may be a major influence on rapid evolution during reproduction.

   The garden had a couple of trees, and a cluster of colourful plants around the border.

2. (botany) An organism of the kingdom Plantae; now specifically, a living organism of the Embryophyta (land plants) or of the Chlorophyta (green algae), a eukaryote that includes double-membraned chloroplasts in its cells containing chlorophyll a and b, or any organism closely related to such an organism.
3. (ecology) Now specifically, a multicellular eukaryote that includes chloroplasts in its cells, which have a cell wall.
4. (proscribed as biologically inaccurate) Any creature that grows on soil or similar surfaces, including plants and fungi.
6. A factory or other industrial or institutional building or facility.
7. An object placed surreptitiously in order to cause suspicion to fall upon a person.

   That gun’s not mine! It’s a plant! I’ve never seen it before!

8. Anyone assigned to behave as a member of the public during a covert operation (as in a police investigation).
9. A person, placed amongst an audience, whose role is to cause confusion, laughter etc.
10. (snooker) A play in which the cue ball knocks one (usually red) ball onto another, in order to pot the second; a set.
    • 2008, Phil Yates, The Times, April 28 2008:

      O’Sullivan risked a plant that went badly astray, splitting the reds.

11. (uncountable) Machinery, such as the kind used in earthmoving or construction.
12. (obsolete) A young tree; a sapling; hence, a stick or staff.

    • 1694, John Dryden, transl., “The Third Book of Virgil’s Georgicks”, in The Annual Miscellany, for the Year 1694, second edition, London: Jacob Tonson, published 1708, page 185:

      Take, Shepherd, take a Plant of ſtubborn Oak; / And labour him with many a ſturdy ſtroke: / Or with hard Stones, demoliſh from afar / His haughty Creſt, the feat of all the War.

13. (obsolete) The sole of the foot.

    • 1611, Ben Jonson, “Oberon, the Faery Prince”, in The Works of Ben Jonson, volume V, London: D. Midwinter et al., published 1756, page 384:

      Knotty legs, and plants of clay, / Seek for eaſe, or love delay.

14. (dated, slang) A plan; a swindle; a trick.

    • 1850 March 30, Charles Dickens, “A Detective Police Party”, in Household Words, volume 1, page 413:

      It wasn’t a bad plant that of mine, on Fikey, the man accused of forging the Sou’ Westeru Railway debentures—it was only t’ other day—because the reason why? I’ll tell you.

15. An oyster which has been bedded, in distinction from one of natural growth.
16. (US, dialect) A young oyster suitable for transplanting.
17. (control theory) The combination of process and actuator.

Usage notes[edit]

The scientific definition of what organisms should be considered plants changed dramatically during the 20th century. Bacteria, algae, and fungi are no longer considered plants by those who study them. Many textbooks do not reflect the most current thinking on classification.

Hypernyms[edit]

• (biology): Archaeplastida

Hyponyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

[edit]

• plant pot
• plant room

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

plant (third-person singular simple present plants, present participle planting, simple past and past participle planted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To place (a seed or plant) in soil or other substrate in order that it may live and grow.
2. (transitive) To place (an object, or sometimes a person), often with the implication of intending deceit.

   That gun’s not mine! It was planted there by the real murderer!

   • 1999, Terry Prone, The Skywriter (page 182)

     Not only that, I thought, but cynics would now theorise that the interview piece was a PR exercise, a planted story designed as damage-limitation in the event that some probing journalist revealed all about the love nest.

3. (transitive) To place or set something firmly or with conviction.

   Plant your feet firmly and give the rope a good tug.

   to plant cannon against a fort; to plant a flag; to plant one’s feet on solid ground

   • 2011 January 15, Sam Sheringham, “Chelsea 2 — 0 Blackburn Rovers”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     First Anelka curled a shot wide from just outside the box, then Lampard planted a header over the bar from Bosingwa’s cross.

4. To place in the ground.

   • 1780, William Cowper, “Light Shining out of Darkneſs”, in Twenty-ſix Letters on Religious Subjects […] To which are added Hymns […] ‎^[2], fourth edition, page 252:

     God moves in a myſterious way, / His wonders to perform; / He plants his footſteps in the ſea, / And rides upon the ſtorm.

   • 2007, Richard Laymon, Savage, page 118:

     Sarah, she kissed each of her grandparents on the forehead. They were planted in a graveyard behind the church.

5. To furnish or supply with plants.

   to plant a garden, an orchard, or a forest

6. To engender; to generate; to set the germ of.

   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     It engenders choler, planteth anger.

7. To furnish with a fixed and organized population; to settle; to establish.

   to plant a colony
8. To introduce and establish the principles or seeds of.

   to plant Christianity among the heathen

9. To set up; to install; to instate.

   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vii]:

     We will plant some other in the throne.

Derived terms[edit]

• faceplant, handplant
• plant foot
• plant out

[edit]

• plantation

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

• plant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Further reading[edit]

• plant at OneLook Dictionary Search
• plant in Britannica Dictionary
• plant in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary
• plant in Sentence collocations by Cambridge Dictionary
• plant in Ozdic collocation dictionary
• plant in WordReference English Collocations

Danish[edit]

Verb[edit]

plant

1. imperative of plante

Dutch[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle Dutch plante, from Latin planta.^[1] Doublet of clan.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /plɑnt/
• Hyphenation: plant
• Rhymes: -ɑnt

Noun[edit]

plant f (plural planten, diminutive plantje n)

1. plant, any member of the kingdom Plantae
2. (potentially offensive) cabbage, vegetable (person with severe brain damage)

Hyponyms[edit]

• boom
• gewas
• gras
• heester
• struik

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

• Negerhollands: plan, plant

Etymology 2[edit]

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /plɑnt/
• Hyphenation: plant

Verb[edit]

plant

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of planten
2. imperative of planten

Etymology 3[edit]

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): (Belgium) /plɑnt/, (Netherlands) /plɛnt/
• Hyphenation: plant

Verb[edit]

plant

1. second- and third-person singular present indicative of plannen
2. (archaic) plural imperative of plannen

References[edit]

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Deverbal from planter. Doublet of plan (“plan, map”).

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /plɑ̃/
• Homophones: plan, plans, plants

Noun[edit]

plant m (plural plants)

1. seedling
2. young plant or plantation

Derived terms[edit]

• laisser en plant

Further reading[edit]

• “plant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

German[edit]

Verb[edit]

plant

1. inflection of planen:
   1. third-person singular present
   2. second-person plural present
   3. plural imperative

Haitian Creole[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From French plante (“plant”).

Noun[edit]

plant

1. plant (organism)

Mauritian Creole[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From French plante.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): [plɑ̃t]

Noun[edit]

plant

1. a plant

Verb[edit]

plant

1. Medial form of plante; to plant.

Middle English[edit]

Noun[edit]

plant

1. Alternative form of planete (“planet”)

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Verb[edit]

plant

1. imperative of plante

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /plɑnt/

Verb[edit]

plant

1. imperative of planta

Etymology 2[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /plɑːnt/

Adjective[edit]

plant

1. neuter singular of plan

Old Welsh[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin planta.

Noun[edit]

plant pl

1. children

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Descendants[edit]

• Welsh: plant
• → Old Irish: cland
  • Middle Irish: clann
    • Irish: clann
    • Manx: cloan
    • Scottish Gaelic: clann
      • → English: clan
        • → Catalan: clan
        • → Dutch: clan
        • → French: clan
          • → Turkish: klan
        • → Galician: clan
        • → German: Clan
        • → Italian: clan
        • → Polish: klan
        • → Russian: клан (klan)
        • → Portuguese: clan, clã
        • → Spanish: clan

Swedish[edit]

Adjective[edit]

plant

1. absolute indefinite neuter singular of plan.

Welsh[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Welsh plant, from Latin planta.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /plant/
• Rhymes: -ant

Noun[edit]

plant m pl (singulative plentyn)

1. children, young people
2. children (of parents), offspring (sometimes of animals), progeny, issue; descendants
   • 1620, Revised version of William Morgan’s translation of the Bible, Joel 1:3:

     Mynegwch hyn i’ch plant, a’ch plant i’w plant hwythau, a’u plant hwythau i genhedlaeth arall.

     Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. (KJV)

3. followers, disciples, servants
4. people regarded as product of a particular place, time, event, circumstances, etc.

Mutation[edit]

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
plant	blant	mhlant	phlant
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading[edit]

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “plant”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

West Frisian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Ultimately from Latin planta. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun[edit]

plant c (plural planten, diminutive plantsje)

1. plant

Further reading[edit]

• “plant (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

What did the word plant originally mean?

plant (v.) Old English plantian “put or set in the ground to grow” (transitive and intransitive), also “introduce and establish, set up for the first time,” from Latin *plantare “to plant, drive in with the feet” (see plant (n.)). Reinforced by cognate Old French planter.

What is the root word of plant?

Plant. Another kind of plant is a factory or another business where goods are manufactured, and then there’s the plant that means “spy or informer.” The Latin root of plant is planta, “sprout or shoot,” which may stem from plantare, “push into the ground with the feet,” from planta, “sole of the foot.”

Who came up with the word plant?

ORIGIN Old English plante [seedling,] plantian (verb), from Latin planta ‘sprout, cutting’ (later influenced by French plante) and plantare ‘plant, fix in a place.

What is called plant?

A plant is a living thing that grows in the earth and has a stem, leaves, and roots. When someone plants land with a particular type of plant or crop, they put plants, seeds, or young trees into the land to grow them there.

Is a plant an organism?

Plants are multicellular organisms in the kingdom Plantae that use photosynthesis to make their own food.

Do plants feel pain?

Given that plants do not have pain receptors, nerves, or a brain, they do not feel pain as we members of the animal kingdom understand it. Uprooting a carrot or trimming a hedge is not a form of botanical torture, and you can bite into that apple without worry.

What makes an organism a plant?

Here are some basic characteristics that make a living organism a plant: Plants have a cuticle, meaning they have a waxy layer on their surface that protects them and keeps them from drying out. They have eukaryotic cells with rigid cell walls. They reproduce with spores or with sex cells.

What makes an organism alive?

All living organisms share several key characteristics or functions: order, sensitivity or response to the environment, reproduction, adaptation, growth and development, homeostasis, energy processing, and evolution. When viewed together, these characteristics serve to define life.

What is the simplest living organism?

But if we look for the simplest creatures on the planet, we will find a wee bacterium that lives happily in the digestive tracts of cows and goats: Mycoplasma mycoides. It builds itself from a very modest blueprint—only 525 genes. It’s one of the simplest life-forms we’ve ever seen.

How do we know if something is living or non-living?

The term living thing refers to things that are now or once were alive. A non-living thing is anything that was never alive. In order for something to be classified as living, it must grow and develop, use energy, reproduce, be made of cells, respond to its environment, and adapt.

What are the 5 characteristics of non-living things?

Answer. The absence of nutrition, excretion, respiration, reproduction, irritability and adaptation are the characteristics of nonliving things.

What are the 3 characteristics of non-living things?

Non-living things

• Characteristics of non-living things:
• 1)They do not need air,food and water to survive.
• 2)They do not respond to changes.
• 3)They do not reproduce.
• 4)They do not grow.
• 5)They cannot move by themselves.

What makes a non-living thing?

Non-livings things do not exhibit any characteristics of life. They do not grow, respire, need energy, move, reproduce, evolve, or maintain homeostasis. These things are made up of non-living materials. Some examples of non-living things are stones, paper, electronic goods, books, buildings, and automobiles.

What is non-living things and examples?

Non-living things are inanimate objects or forces with the ability to influence, shape, alter a habitat, and impact its life. Some examples of non-living things include rocks, water, weather, climate, and natural events such as rockfalls or earthquakes.

Is a pencil a non-living thing?

A: No, a pencil is not alive. We know that we are alive because we move, grow, and change. A pencil does not move, grow or change unless we move it or change it (for example: by sharpening the pencil).

What is a non-living thing called?

Inanimate describes a non-living thing. Chairs, baseballs, sofa cushions and sadly, snowmen, are all inanimate objects.

Why table is a non-living thing?

Answer. The table is a non-living thing because it cannot breathe, eat and cannot exhibit anything like the living beings. This is a non-living being because it cannot act like a living being and also cannot do any things on its own. The table is not made up of cells which the living beings are made up of.

Is the sun a living thing?

For young students things are ‘living’ if they move or grow; for example, the sun, wind, clouds and lightning are considered living because they change and move. Others think plants and certain animals are non-living.

Is House a non-living thing?

Inside our house or school we see furniture, electronics, food, drinks, birds, books, plants, etc. Animals, plants and human beings are living things, also called as living beings. Buildings, table, chair, curtains, etc are man-made things. They are also non-living things.

Why do non-living things do not grow?

Living things use energy, respond to stimuli and adapt to their environment. Non-living things do not grow through internal metabolic functions but by adding on from the outside. Non-living things do not need energy to continue to exist.

Is Salt a living thing yes or no?

Table salt, sodium chloride (NaCl), is a naturally occurring mineral essential for animal life.

What are the two kinds of non-living things?

They exist in nature or are made by living things. There are three groups of nonliving things. They are solids, liquids, and gases. Water is an example of a liquid.

Is water living or non living?

Living things need food to grow, they move, respire, reproduce, excrete wastes from the body, respond to stimuli in the environment and have a definite life span. Water, sun, moon and stars do not show any of the above characteristics of living things. Hence, they are non-living things.

What non living thing produces waste?

Living things produce waste. A factory produces waste, but it is not alive. A car or truck produces waste, but it is not alive. it has ALL SIX characteristics.

Why is water not a living thing?

Why is water not a living thing? Because it’s composed of only two elements: Hydrogen (two atoms) and Oxygen (one atom). Water does not have the characteristics of living things, which are: Something that has cells.

Does every living thing need oxygen?

Almost all living things need oxygen. They use this oxygen during the process of creating energy in living cells. This means that plants “breathe” in carbon dioxide and “breathe” out oxygen. Animals form the other half of the oxygen cycle.

Can non-living things grow?

Non-living things do not eat, grow, breathe, move and reproduce. They do not have senses.

Is there any living thing that doesn’t need water?

Answer and Explanation: There is no living thing on Earth that doesn’t need water to live. All animals, plants, protists, fungi and bacteria must have water in some form in…

Everyone knows what a plant is. But why is a plant called a plant? Where did this word come from, what does it mean in the literal sense?

These are the questions we will answer in our article, based on various dictionaries, and also give an interpretation of the names of several plants.

Origin of the word of the plant

Lev Uspensky, creator of the etymologicaldictionary, believed that the word plant came from the verb to grow. In Ancient Rus this word sounded like «Orsti». Over time, the form of the verb has undergone significant changes. So the word «plant» appeared. Aristotle and Archimedes believed that vegetation refers to something average between animals and inanimate objects. At the same time, they noted that although plants can not move, they can grow. Hence the word plant appeared. Efron, who is the author of an encyclopedic dictionary, believed that green is the most active growing organism on the planet.

Thus the origin of the word «plant»is directly related to growth. However, it would be unfair not to notice that in Chinese, the word «plant» means more than just growing grass or bushes. The fact is that according to the ancient Chinese parable the plant symbolizes the desire for heaven. The plant was often associated with human life. It was believed that plants are similar to humans in many ways, including the stage when they just give the first shoots, then grow and grow stronger, and then eventually wilt. Therefore, the Chinese do not at all touch plants without need and try not to ruin them. In India, it was believed that a person after his life can become a plant.

Names of plants

Surely, you have a question, why is it the samesome plants have such unusual names. For example, what can the word bird-cherry mean? It is known that this plant is actively used in medicine. Meanwhile, its name «black man» literally means a swarthy one. Zamanikhu was called so because she looks like ginseng, which often confused the collectors. Schisandra is apparently named so because it has the fruit of a lemon.

But the dream-grass name history is much more interesting. More: Sleep-grass what is this plant.

Plants Temporal range: Mesoproterozoic–present Pha. Proterozoic Archean Had’n
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Clade:	Diaphoretickes
(unranked):	Archaeplastida
Kingdom:	Plantae sensu Copeland, 1956
Superdivisions
see text
Synonyms
Viridiplantae Cavalier-Smith 1981[1] Chlorobionta Jeffrey 1982, emend. Bremer 1985, emend. Lewis and McCourt 2004[2] Chlorobiota Kenrick and Crane 1997[3] Chloroplastida Adl et al., 2005 [4] Phyta Barkley 1939 emend. Holt & Uidica 2007 Cormophyta Endlicher, 1836 Cormobionta Rothmaler, 1948 Euplanta Barkley, 1949 Telomobionta Takhtajan, 1964 Embryobionta Cronquist et al., 1966 Metaphyta Whittaker, 1969

Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes, forming the kingdom Plantae. Most of them are multicellular. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi. All current definitions exclude the fungi and some of the algae. By one definition, plants form the clade Viridiplantae (Latin name for «green plants») which consists of the green algae and the Embryophyta or land plants. The latter include hornworts, liverworts, mosses, lycophytes, ferns, conifers and other gymnosperms, and flowering plants. A definition based on genomes includes the Viridiplantae, along with the red algae and the glaucophytes, in the clade Archaeplastida.

Green plants obtain most of their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria. Chloroplasts perform photosynthesis using the pigment chlorophyll, which gives them their green colour. Some plants are parasitic and have lost the ability to produce normal amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, but asexual reproduction is also common.

There are about 380,000 known species of plants, of which the majority, some 260,000, produce seeds. Green plants provide a substantial proportion of the world’s molecular oxygen and are the basis of most of Earth’s ecosystems. Grain, fruit, and vegetables are basic human foods and have been domesticated for millennia. Plants have many cultural and other uses, such as ornaments, building materials, writing materials, and, in great variety, they have been the source of medicines. The scientific study of plants is known as botany, a branch of biology.

Definition

Taxonomic history

All living things were traditionally placed into one of two groups, plants and animals. This classification dates from Aristotle (384–322 BC), who distinguished different levels of beings in his biology,^[5] based on if living things have locomotion or had sensory organs.^[6] Theophrastus, Aristotle’s student, continued his work in plant taxonomy and classification.^[7] Much later, Linnaeus (1707–1778) created the basis of the modern system of scientific classification, but retained the animal and plant kingdoms.^[7]

Alternative concepts

When the name Plantae or plant is applied to a specific group of organisms or taxon, it usually refers to one of four concepts. From least to most inclusive, these four groupings are:

Name(s)	Scope	Description
Land plants, also known as Embryophyta	Plantae sensu strictissimo	Plants in the strictest sense include liverworts, hornworts, mosses, and vascular plants, as well as fossil plants similar to these surviving groups (e.g., Metaphyta Whittaker, 1969,[8] Plantae Margulis, 1971[9]).
Green plants, also known as Viridiplantae, Viridiphyta, Chlorobionta or Chloroplastida	Plantae sensu stricto	Plants in a strict sense include the green algae, and land plants that emerged within them, including stoneworts. The relationships between plant groups are still being worked out, and the names given to them vary considerably. The clade Viridiplantae encompasses a group of organisms that have cellulose in their cell walls, possess chlorophylls a and b and have plastids bound by only two membranes that are capable of photosynthesis and of storing starch. This clade is the main subject of this article (e.g., Plantae Copeland, 1956[10]).
Archaeplastida, also known as Plastida or Primoplantae	Plantae sensu lato	Plants in a broad sense comprise the green plants listed above plus the red algae (Rhodophyta) and the glaucophyte algae (Glaucophyta) that store Floridean starch outside the plastids, in the cytoplasm. This clade includes all of the organisms that eons ago acquired their primary chloroplasts directly by engulfing cyanobacteria (e.g., Plantae Cavalier-Smith, 1981[11]).
Old definitions of plant (obsolete)	Plantae sensu amplo	Plants in the widest sense refers to older, obsolete classifications that placed the unrelated groups of algae, fungi and bacteria in Plantae (e.g., Plantae or Vegetabilia Linnaeus,[12] Plantae Haeckel 1866,[13] Metaphyta Haeckel, 1894,[14] Plantae Whittaker, 1969[8]).

Evolution

Diversity

There are about 382,000 accepted species of plants,^[15] of which the great majority, some 293,000, produce seeds.^[16] The table below shows some species count estimates of different green plant (Viridiplantae) divisions. About 85–90% of all plants are flowering plants. Several projects are currently attempting to collect records on all plant species in online databases, e.g. the World Flora Online.^[15][17]

Plants range in scale from single cells, such as many algae including desmids (from 10 micrometres across) and picozoans (less than 3 micrometres across),^[18][19] to trees such as the conifer Sequoia sempervirens (up to 380 feet (120 m) tall ) and the angiosperm Eucalyptus regnans (up to 325 feet (99 m) tall ).^[20]

Diversity of living green plant (Viridiplantae) divisions

Informal group	Division name	Common name	No. of living species
Green algae	Chlorophyta	Green algae (chlorophytes)	3,800–4,300 [21][22]
Charophyta	Green algae (e.g. desmids & stoneworts)	2,800–6,000 [23][24]
Bryophytes	Marchantiophyta	Liverworts	6,000–8,000 [25]
Anthocerotophyta	Hornworts	100–200 [26]
Bryophyta	Mosses	12,000 [27]
Pteridophytes	Lycopodiophyta	Clubmosses	1,200 [28]
Polypodiophyta	Ferns, whisk ferns & horsetails	11,000 [28]
Spermatophyte (seed plants)	Cycadophyta	Cycads	160 [29]
Ginkgophyta	Ginkgo	1 [30]
Pinophyta	Conifers	630 [28]
Gnetophyta	Gnetophytes	70 [28]
Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants	258,650 [31]

The naming of plants is governed by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants^[32] and the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants.^[33]

Evolutionary scenarios

The ancestors of land plants evolved in water. An algal scum formed on the land 1,200 million years ago, but it was not until the Ordovician, around 450 million years ago, that the first land plants appeared, with a level of organisation like that of bryophytes.^[34][35] However, evidence from carbon isotope ratios in Precambrian rocks suggests that complex plants developed over 1000 mya.^[36]

Primitive land plants began to diversify in the late Silurian, around 420 million years ago. Bryophytes, club mosses, ferns then appear in the fossil record.^[37] Early plant anatomy is preserved in cellular detail in an early Devonian fossil assemblage from the Rhynie chert. These early plants were preserved by being petrified in chert formed in silica-rich volcanic hot springs.^[38]

By the end of the Devonian, most of the basic features of plants today were present, including roots, leaves and secondary wood in trees such as Archaeopteris.^[39][40] The Carboniferous Period saw the development of forests in swampy environments dominated by clubmosses and horsetails, including some as large as trees, and the appearance of early gymnosperms, the first seed plants.^[41] The Permo-Triassic extinction event radically changed the structures of communities.^[42] This may have set the scene for the evolution of flowering plants in the Triassic (~200 million years ago), with an adaptive radiation in the Cretaceous so rapid that Darwin called it an «abominable mystery».^[43][44][45] Conifers diversified from the Late Triassic onwards, and became a dominant part of floras in the Jurassic.^[46][47]

• 

  By the Devonian, plants had adapted to land with roots and woody stems.

• 

Towards a phylogenetic tree

A phylogenetic tree of Plantae, proposed in 1997 by Kenrick and Crane,^[48] is as follows. The Prasinophyceae are a paraphyletic assemblage of early diverging green algal lineages, but are treated as a group outside the Chlorophyta:^[49]

A different classification followed Leliaert et al. 2011^[50] and modified with Silar 2016^[51][52][53] for the green algae clades and Novíkov & Barabaš-Krasni 2015^[54] for the land plants clade. Notice that the Prasinophyceae are here placed inside the Chlorophyta.

Genomic phylogeny

In 2019, a phylogeny based on genomes and transcriptomes from 1,153 plant species was proposed.^[55] The placing of algal groups is supported by phylogenies based on genomes from the Mesostigmatophyceae and Chlorokybophyceae that have since been sequenced. Both the «chlorophyte algae» and the «streptophyte algae» are treated as paraphyletic (vertical bars beside phylogenetic tree diagram) in this analysis, as the land plants arose from within those groups.^[56][57] The classification of Bryophyta is supported both by Puttick et al. 2018,^[58] and by phylogenies involving the hornwort genomes that have also since been sequenced.^[59][60]

Physiology

Plant cells

Plant cells have some distinctive features that other eukaryotic cells (such as those of animals) lack. These are the large water-filled central vacuole, chloroplasts, and the strong flexible cell wall, which is outside the cell membrane. Chloroplasts are derived from what was once a symbiosis of a non-photosynthetic cell and photosynthetic cyanobacteria. The cell wall, made mostly of cellulose, allows plant cells to swell up with water without bursting. The vacuole allows the cell to change in size while the amount of cytoplasm stays the same.^[61]

Plant structure

Most plants are multicellular. Just as in animals, plant cells differentiate and develop into multiple cell types, forming tissues such as the vascular tissue with specialized xylem and phloem of leaf veins and stems, and organs with different physiological functions such as roots to absorb water and minerals, stems for support and to transport water and synthesised molecules, leaves for photosynthesis, and flowers for reproduction.^[62]

Photosynthesis

Plants photosynthesize, manufacturing food molecules using energy obtained from light. The primary mechanism plants have for capturing light energy is the green pigment chlorophyll, which plant cells have in their chloroplasts. The simple equation of photosynthesis is:^[63]

This means that they release oxygen into the atmosphere. Green plants provide a substantial proportion of the world’s molecular oxygen, alongside the contributions from photosynthetic algae and cyanobacteria.^[64][65][66]

Growth and repair

Growth is determined by the interaction of a plant’s genome with its physical and biotic environment.^[67] Factors of the physical or abiotic environment include temperature, water, light, carbon dioxide, and nutrients in the soil.^[68] Biotic factors that affect plant growth include crowding, grazing, beneficial symbiotic bacteria and fungi, and attacks by insects or plant diseases.^[69]

Frost and dehydration can damage or kill plants. Some plants have antifreeze proteins, heat-shock proteins and sugars in their cytoplasm that enable them to tolerate these stresses.^[70] Plants are continuously exposed to a range of physical and biotic stresses which cause DNA damage. Plants are able to tolerate and repair much of this damage.^[71]

Reproduction

Plants reproduce to generate offspring, whether sexually, involving gametes, or asexually, involving ordinary growth. Many plants use both mechanisms.^[72]

Sexual

When reproducing sexually, plants have complex lifecycles involving alternation of generations. One generation, the sporophyte, which is diploid (with 2 sets of chromosomes), gives rise to the next generation, the gametophyte which is haploid (with one set of chromosomes), and in some plants reproduces asexually via spores. In non-flowering plants such as mosses and ferns, the sexual gametophyte forms most of the visible plant.^[73] In seed plants (gymnosperms and flowering plants), the sporophyte forms most of the visible plant, and the gametophyte is very small. Flowering plants reproduce sexually using flowers, which contain male and female parts: these may be within the same (hermaphrodite) flower, on different flowers on the same plant, or on different plants. Male pollen enters the ovule to fertilize the egg cell of the female gametophyte. Fertilization takes place enclosed within the carpels or ovaries, which develop into fruits that contain seeds. Fruits may be dispersed whole, or they may split open and the seeds dispersed individually.^[74]

Asexual

Plants reproduce asexually by growing any of a wide variety of structures capable of growing into new plants. At the simplest, plants such as mosses or liverworts may be broken into pieces, each of which may regrow into whole plants. The propagation of flowering plants by cuttings is a similar process. Structures such as runners enable plants to grow to cover an area, forming a clone. Many plants grow food storage structures such as tubers or bulbs which may each develop into a new plant.^[75]

Some non-flowering plants, such as many liverworts, mosses and some clubmosses, along with a few flowering plants, grow small clumps of cells called gemmae which can detach and grow.^[76][77]

Disease resistance

Plants use pattern-recognition receptors to recognize pathogens such as bacteria that cause plant diseases. This recognition triggers a protective response. The first such plant receptors were identified in rice^[78] and in Arabidopsis thaliana.^[79]

Genomics

Plants have some of the largest genomes among all organisms.^[80] The largest plant genome (in terms of gene number) is that of wheat (Triticum aestivum), predicted to encode ≈94,000 genes^[81] and thus almost 5 times as many as the human genome. The first plant genome sequenced was that of Arabidopsis thaliana which encodes about 25,500 genes.^[82] In terms of sheer DNA sequence, the smallest published genome is that of the carnivorous bladderwort (Utricularia gibba) at 82 Mb (although it still encodes 28,500 genes)^[83] while the largest, from the Norway Spruce (Picea abies), extends over 19.6 Gb (encoding about 28,300 genes).^[84]

Ecology

Distribution

Plants are distributed almost worldwide. While they inhabit several biomes which can be divided into a multitude of ecoregions,^[85] only the hardy plants of the Antarctic flora, consisting of algae, mosses, liverworts, lichens, and just two flowering plants, have adapted to the prevailing conditions on that southern continent.^[86]

Plants are often the dominant physical and structural component of the habitats where they occur. Many of the Earth’s biomes are named for the type of vegetation because plants are the dominant organisms in those biomes, such as grassland, savanna, and tropical rainforest.^[87]

Primary producers

The photosynthesis conducted by land plants and algae is the ultimate source of energy and organic material in nearly all ecosystems. Photosynthesis, at first by cyanobacteria and later by photosynthetic eukaryotes, radically changed the composition of the early Earth’s anoxic atmosphere, which as a result is now 21% oxygen. Animals and most other organisms are aerobic, relying on oxygen; those that do not are confined to relatively rare anaerobic environments. Plants are the primary producers in most terrestrial ecosystems and form the basis of the food web in those ecosystems.^[88] Plants form about 80% of the world biomass at about 450 gigatonnes (4.4×10¹¹ long tons; 5.0×10¹¹ short tons) of carbon.^[89]

Ecological relationships

Numerous animals have coevolved with plants; flowering plants have evolved pollination syndromes, suites of flower traits that favour their reproduction. Many, including insect and bird partners, are pollinators, visiting flowers and accidentally transferring pollen in exchange for food in the form of pollen or nectar.^[90]

Many animals disperse seeds that are adapted for such dispersal. Various mechanisms of dispersal have evolved. Some fruits offer nutritious outer layers attractive to animals, while the seeds are adapted to survive the passage through the animal’s gut; others have hooks that enable them to attach to a mammal’s fur.^[91]
Myrmecophytes are plants that have coevolved with ants. The plant provides a home, and sometimes food, for the ants. In exchange, the ants defend the plant from herbivores and sometimes competing plants. Ant wastes serve as organic fertilizer.^[92]

The majority of plant species have fungi associated with their root systems in a mutualistic symbiosis known as mycorrhiza. The fungi help the plants gain water and mineral nutrients from the soil, while the plant gives the fungi carbohydrates manufactured in photosynthesis.^[93]
Some plants serve as homes for endophytic fungi that protect the plant from herbivores by producing toxins. The fungal endophyte Neotyphodium coenophialum in tall fescue grass has pest status in the American cattle industry.^[94]

Many legumes have Rhizobium nitrogen-fixing bacteria in nodules of their roots, which fix nitrogen from the air for the plant to use; in return, the plants supply sugars to the bacteria.^[95] Nitrogen fixed in this way can become available to other plants, and is important in agriculture; for example, farmers may grow a crop rotation of a legume such as beans, followed by a cereal such as wheat, to provide cash crops with a reduced input of nitrogen fertilizer.^[96]

Some 1% of plants are parasitic. They range from the semi-parasitic mistletoe that merely takes some nutrients from its host, but still has photosynthetic leaves, to the fully-parasitic broomrape and toothwort that acquire all their nutrients through connections to the roots of other plants, and so have no chlorophyll. Full parasites can be extremely harmful to their plant hosts.^[97]

Plants that grow on other plants, usually trees, without parasitizing them, are called epiphytes. These may support diverse arboreal ecosystems. Some may indirectly harm their host plant, such as by intercepting light. Hemiepiphytes like the strangler fig begin as epiphytes, but eventually set their own roots and overpower and kill their host. Many orchids, bromeliads, ferns, and mosses grow as epiphytes.^[98] Among the epiphytes, the bromeliads accumulate water in their leaf axils; these water-filled cavities can support complex aquatic food webs.^[99]

Some 630 species of plants are carnivorous, such as the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) and sundew (Drosera species). They trap small animals and digest them to obtain mineral nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorus.^[100]

Competition

Competition for shared resources reduces a plant’s growth.^[101][102] Shared resources include sunlight, water and nutrients. Light is a critical resource because it is necessary for photosynthesis.^[101] Plants use their leaves to shade other plants from sunlight and grow quickly to maximize their own expose.^[101] Water too is essential for photosynthesis; roots compete to maximize water uptake from soil.^[103] Some plants have deep roots that are able to locate water stored deep underground, and others have shallower roots that are capable of extending longer distances to collect recent rainwater.^[103]
Minerals are important for plant growth and development.^[104] Common nutrients competed for amongst plants include nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.^[105]

Importance

Food

Human cultivation of plants is the core of agriculture, which in turn has played a key role in the history of world civilizations.^[106] Humans depend on plants for food, either directly or as feed in animal husbandry. Agriculture includes agronomy for arable crops, horticulture for vegetables and fruit, and forestry for timber.^[107][108] About 7,000 species of plant have been used for food, though most of today’s food is derived from only 30 species. The major staples include cereals such as rice and wheat, starchy roots and tubers such as cassava and potato, and legumes such as peas and beans. Vegetable oils such as olive oil and palm oil provide lipids, while fruit and vegetables contribute vitamins and minerals to the diet.^[109]
The study of plant uses by people is called economic botany or ethnobotany.^[110]

Medicines

Medicinal plants are a primary source of organic compounds, both for their medicinal and physiological effects, and for the industrial synthesis of a vast array of organic chemicals.^[111] Many hundreds of medicines are derived from plants, both traditional medicines used in herbalism^[112][113] and chemical substances purified from plants or first identified in them, sometimes by ethnobotanical search, and then synthesised for use in modern medicine. Modern medicines derived from plants include aspirin, taxol, morphine, quinine, reserpine, colchicine, digitalis and vincristine. Plants used in herbalism include ginkgo, echinacea, feverfew, and Saint John’s wort. The pharmacopoeia of Dioscorides, De Materia Medica, describing some 600 medicinal plants, was written between 50 and 70 CE and remained in use in Europe and the Middle East until around 1600 CE; it was the precursor of all modern pharmacopoeias.^{[114][115][116]}

Nonfood products

Plants grown as industrial crops are the source of a wide range of products used in manufacturing.^[117] Nonfood products include essential oils, natural dyes, pigments, waxes, resins, tannins, alkaloids, amber and cork. Products derived from plants include soaps, shampoos, perfumes, cosmetics, paint, varnish, turpentine, rubber, latex, lubricants, linoleum, plastics, inks, and gums. Renewable fuels from plants include firewood, peat and other biofuels.^[118][119] The fossil fuels coal, petroleum and natural gas are derived from the remains of aquatic organisms including phytoplankton in geological time.^[120] Many of the coal fields date to the Carboniferous period of Earth’s history. Terrestrial plants also form type III kerogen, a source of natural gas.^[121][122]

Structural resources and fibres from plants are used to construct dwellings and to manufacture clothing. Wood is used for buildings, boats, and furniture, and for smaller items such as musical instruments and sports equipment. Wood is pulped to make paper and cardboard.^[123] Cloth is often made from cotton, flax, ramie or synthetic fibres such as rayon and acetate derived from plant cellulose. Thread used to sew cloth likewise comes in large part from cotton.^[124]

Ornamental plants

Thousands of plant species are cultivated for their beauty and to provide shade, modify temperatures, reduce wind, abate noise, provide privacy, and reduce soil erosion. Plants are the basis of a multibillion-dollar per year tourism industry, which includes travel to historic gardens, national parks, rainforests, forests with colorful autumn leaves, and festivals such as Japan’s^[125] and America’s cherry blossom festivals.^[126]

Plants may be grown indoors as houseplants, or in specialized buildings such as greenhouses. Plants such as Venus flytrap, sensitive plant and resurrection plant are sold as novelties. Art forms specializing in the arrangement of cut or living plant include bonsai, ikebana, and the arrangement of cut or dried flowers. Ornamental plants have sometimes changed the course of history, as in tulipomania.^[127]

In science

Basic biological research has often used plants as its model organisms. In genetics, the breeding of pea plants allowed Gregor Mendel to derive the basic laws governing inheritance,^[128] and examination of chromosomes in maize allowed Barbara McClintock to demonstrate their connection to inherited traits.^[129] The plant Arabidopsis thaliana is used in laboratories as a model organism to understand how genes control the growth and development of plant structures.^[130] Tree rings provide a method of dating in archeology, and a record of past climates.^[131] The study of plant fossils, or Paleobotany, provides information about the evolutions of plants, paleogeographical reconstructions, and past climate change. Plant fossils can also help determine the age of rocks.^[132]

In mythology, religion, and culture

Plants including trees appear in mythology, religion, and literature.^{[133][134][135]} Flowers are often used as memorials, gifts and to mark special occasions such as births, deaths, weddings and holidays. Flower arrangements may be used to send hidden messages.^[136] Architectural designs resembling plants appear in the capitals of Ancient Egyptian columns, which were carved to resemble either the Egyptian white lotus or the papyrus.^[137] Images of plants and especially of flowers are often used in paintings.^[138][139]

Negative effects

Weeds are commercially or aesthetically undesirable plants growing in managed environments such as in agriculture and gardens.^[140] People have spread many plants beyond their native ranges; some of these plants have become invasive, damaging existing ecosystems by displacing native species, and sometimes becoming serious weeds of cultivation.^[141]

Some plants that produce windblown pollen, including grasses, invoke allergic reactions in people who suffer from hay fever.^[142] Many plants produce toxins to protect themselves from herbivores. Major classes of plant toxins include alkaloids, terpenoids, and phenolics.^[143] These can be harmful to humans and livestock by ingestion^[144][145] or, as with poison ivy, by contact.^[146] Some plants have negative effects on other plants, preventing seedling growth or the growth of nearby plants by releasing allopathic chemicals.^[147]

See also

• Plant identification
• Mycorrhizal network

References

Further reading

General:

• Evans, L.T. (1998). Feeding the Ten Billion – Plants and Population Growth. Cambridge University Press. Paperback, 247 pages. ISBN 0-521-64685-5.
• Kenrick, Paul & Crane, Peter R. (1997). The Origin and Early Diversification of Land Plants: A Cladistic Study. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 1-56098-730-8.
• Raven, Peter H.; Evert, Ray F.; & Eichhorn, Susan E. (2005). Biology of Plants (7th ed.). New York: W.H. Freeman and Company. ISBN 0-7167-1007-2.
• Taylor, Thomas N. & Taylor, Edith L. (1993). The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-651589-4.

Species estimates and counts:

• International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (2004). IUCN Red List The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
• Prance, G. T. (2001). «Discovering the Plant World». Taxon. 50 (2, Golden Jubilee Part 4): 345–359. doi:10.2307/1223885. JSTOR 1223885.

External links

• Index Nominum Algarum
• Interactive Cronquist classification
• Plant Resources of Tropical Africa
• Tree of Life Archived 9 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine

Botanical and vegetation databases

• African Plants Initiative database
• Australia
• Chilean plants at Chilebosque
• e-Floras (Flora of China, Flora of North America and others) Archived 19 February 2022 at the Wayback Machine
• Flora Europaea
• Flora of Central Europe (in German)
• Flora of North America Archived 19 February 2022 at the Wayback Machine
• List of Japanese Wild Plants Online Archived 16 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine
• Meet the Plants-National Tropical Botanical Garden
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center – Native Plant Information Network at University of Texas, Austin
• The Plant List Archived 25 February 2022 at the Wayback Machine
• United States Department of Agriculture not limited to continental US species