Plant
Plants, also called green plants (Viridiplantae in Latin), are living organisms of the kingdom Plantae including such multicellular groups as flowering plants, conifers, ferns and mosses, as well as, depending on definition, the green algae, but not red or brown seaweeds like kelp, nor fungi or bacteria.
Green plants have cell walls with cellulose and characteristically obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis using chlorophyll contained in chloroplasts, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic and may not produce normal amounts of chlorophyll or photosynthesize. Plants are also characterized by sexual reproduction, modular and indeterminate growth, and an alteration of generations, although asexual reproduction is common, and some plants bloom only once while others bear only one bloom.
Precise numbers are difficult to determine, but as of 2010, there are thought to be 300–315 thousand species of plants, of which the great majority, some 260–290 thousand, are seed plants (see the table below). Green plants provide most of the world's free oxygen and are the basis of most of the earth's ecologies, especially on land. Plants described as grains, fruits and vegetables form mankind's basic foodstuffs, and have been domesticated for millennia. Plants enrich our lives as flowers and ornaments. Until recently and in great variety they have served as the source of most of our medicines and drugs. Their scientific study is known as botany.
Read more about Plant: Definition, Diversity, Structure, Growth, and Development, Ecology, Importance
Other articles related to "plant, plants":
... From 1974 to 1985 he worked in Hyderabad in India as Principal Plant Physiologist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics ... As a biochemist, Sheldrake researched the role of auxin, a plant hormone, in the cellular differentiation of a plant's vascular system ... First of May 2029, "given the genome of a fertilised egg of an animal or plant, we will be able to predict in at least one case all the details of the organism that develops ...
... The Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant is a multi-unit nuclear plant under construction in Qinshan Town, Haiyan County, Zhejiang, the People's Republic of China ... one site however, since the majority of the units are mid-size, it may be surpassed by other plants in terms of generating capacity ... domestically designed and constructed nuclear power plant in the nation (95 percent of components came from domestic manufactures) ...
... and Rhus radicans), is a poisonous North American plant that is well known for its production of urushiol, a clear liquid compound found within the sap of the plant that causes an itching, irritation and ... The plant is not a true ivy (Hedera) ...
... vegetare (enliven), which is derived from vegetus (active), in reference to the process of a plant growing ... word "vegetable" was first recorded in English in the 15th century, and originally applied to any plant ... In 1967, the meaning of the term "vegetable" was specified to mean "plant cultivated for food, edible herb or root." The year 1955 noted the first use of the shortened, slang term "veggi ...
... of the Russian automotive industry, with a number of foreign companies opening assembly plants in the area ... On November 28, 2007, Volkswagen Group opened a new assembly plant in Kaluga, with further expansion plans planned to be completed by, or during, 2009 ... The plant currently assembles the Volkswagen Passat and Škoda Octavia ...
Famous quotes containing the word plant:
“If church prelates, past or present, had even an inkling of physiology they’d realise that what they term this inner ugliness creates and nourishes the hearing ear, the seeing eye, the active mind, and energetic body of man and woman, in the same way that dirt and dung at the roots give the plant its delicate leaves and the full-blown rose.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
“The North American system only wants to consider the positive aspects of reality. Men and women are subjected from childhood to an inexorable process of adaptation; certain principles, contained in brief formulas are endlessly repeated by the press, the radio, the churches, and the schools, and by those kindly, sinister beings, the North American mothers and wives. A person imprisoned by these schemes is like a plant in a flowerpot too small for it: he cannot grow or mature.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)
“Evolution was in a strange mood when that creation came along.... It makes one wonder just where the plant world leaves off and the animal world begins.”
—John Colton (1886–1946)