Plant

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

Famous quotes containing the word plant:

    What do we plant when we plant the tree?
    We plant the ship that will cross the sea,
    We plant the mast to carry the sails,
    We plant the planks to withstand the gales—
    The keel, the keelson, and beam and knee—
    We plant the ship when we plant the tree.
    Henry Abbey (1842–1911)

    He who eats the fruit should at least plant the seed; ay, if possible, a better seed than that whose fruit he has enjoyed.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “Now what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of service to them.”
    Charles Dickens (1812–1870)