Chapter 3

Kingdom Plantae
 Introduction

 All multicellular, eukaryotic organisms with

photosynthetic mode of nutrition are called plants.
 Main producers on land and in water.
 Most essential biotic components of the ecosystem.
Kingdom Plantae – General Classification
Classified on the basis of characteristics like absence or presence of seeds,
vascular tissues, differentiation of plant body, etc.

Classified into two sub-kingdom

a. Phanerogams and b. Cryptogams

a. Phanerogams (Phaneros – visible)

 Commonly called seed producing plants
 Produces visible special reproctutive structure.

b. Cryptogams ( kryptos - hidden, gamos – marriage)

 Spore producing plants
 Do not produce seeds and flowers
 Reproduce sexually by gametes.
 Sex organs ore concealed.
 Salient features of Cryptogams

Thallophyta
 Members are mostly aquatic, few are epiphytes.
 Some grow symbiotically and epiphytes.
 Aquatic – grow in marine or fresh water.
 Most of them free living and some are symbiotic.
 Plant body is thalloid. i.e. differentiated into root, stem and leaves.
 May be small, unicellular, microscopic e.g.Chlorella (non-motile), Chlamydomonas (motile).
 Can be multicellular, branched filamentous (Chara), unbranched filamentous (spirogyra).
 Sargassum – a macroscopic sea weed, measures more than 600 meters in length is also an
alga.
 Cell wall contains either polysaccharides like cellulose/glucose or a variety of proteins or both.
 Reserve food is in the form of starch.
 Reproduction – vegetative asexual and sexual.
 Life cycle shows alternation of generation, dominant haploid and reduced diploid phase.
 Classified as per its pigments – chlorophyll, xanthophylls and phycobilin.
Classification of Kingdom Plantae
Chlorophyceae ( Green Algae)
 Mostly fresh water, few marine and brackish water forms.
 Plant body (thallus) – unicellular or multicellular, colonial or filamentous.
 Cell wall made up of cellulose.
 Various shapes of chloroplasts are observed. Viz. discoid plate like, cup shaped, reticulate,
ribbon like, spiral.
 Chloroplasts contain pigments chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b.
 Reserved food is starch.
 Pyrenoids are assoiciated with chloroplasts.
 Are rich in proteins hence used as source of food even in space travellers. E.g. chlorella.
 E.g. Chlamydomonas, Spirogyra, Chara, Volvox, Ulothrix.

Spirogyra
Phaeophyceae ( Brown Algae)
 Mostly marine, rarely fresh water.
 Plant body (thallus)m – Simple branched filamentous type e.g. Ectocarpus.
Profusely branched. Petalonia.
 Plant body is differentiated into holdfast, stalk called stipe and
photosynthetic leafy part called frond.
 Cell wall is made up of cellulose, fucans and algin.
 Photosynthetic pigments – chlorophyll a, chlorophyll c, fucoxanthin.
 Reserved food – Mannitol, laminarin and starch.
 Economic importance as food – Laminaria, Sargassum.
 Economic importance for production of hydrocolloids – Ectocarpus, Fucus.
 Brown algae – Kelps are large, macroscopic algae. They may grow upto
meters in height.
 Sargasso sea is a region of North Atlantic ocean. It has characteristic
brown sea seed Sargassum. It has air bladders. Sargassum mats are found
floating on the surface of the sea. Fucus
Rhodophyceae ( Red Algae)
 Marine as well as fresh water forms,
found in brackish waters. Observed on
surface waters as well as in deep sea.
 Plant body is thalloid. Batrachospermum

 Cell wall made up of cellulose and

pectin with other carbohydrates.
 Cell contain photosynthetic pigments
chlorophyll a, chlorophyll d,
phycoerythrin. Gracillaria
 Reserved food – Floridean starch.
 Agar-agar which is used as solidifying
agent in tissue culture medium is
obtained from red algae.
 E.g. Chondrus, batrachospermum, Polysihponia
Porphyra, Gelidium, Gracillaria,
Polysiphonia.
Bryophyta
 Mostly terrestrial plants.
 Found in moist shady places.
 Need of water for fertilization and completion of their life cycle. Thus,
they are known as amphibious plants
 Gametophytic and Sporophytic stages are observed in their life cycle.
 Vegetative plant body is gametophytic, thalloid or leafy structure.
 Sporophytic generation is represented by spore producing capsule.
 Presence of rhizoids, which are root like structures but are unicellular
(liverworts) or multicellular (mosses).
 Rhizoids are for anchorage of thallus and absorption of water and
minerals.
 Bryophytes are divided into two groups.
 i.Liverworts .
 Ii.Mosses .
Liverworts (Hepaticeae)
 Primitive group or lower members of Bryophyta.
 Gametophytic plant body is flat called thallus.
 Thallus is green, dorsiventral grows prostrate on substratum with
unicellular rhizoids.
 E.g. Riccia, Marchantia.

Hornworts ( Anthocerotae)
 Gametophytic flattened thallus.
 Horny structures are produced on thallus which are sporophytes.
Hence the name hornworts.
 E.g. Anthoceros.
Mosses (Musci)
 Advanced members of Bryophytes having erect plant body.
 Gametophytic phase of life cycle has two stages filamentous
protonema stage and leafy stage.
 Protonema or juvenile gametophyte – prostrate, green,
filamentous and branched with many buds. Protonema helps in
vegetative propagation.
 The buds produce leafy stage.
 The leafy stage shows erect, slender stem like main axis
(Cauloid) with spirally arranged leafy structures (Phylloid).
 Multicellular branched rhizoids fix erect leafy stage in soil.
Mosses (Musci) –contd.
 Leafy stage bears sex organs.
 Vegetative reproduction occurs by fragmentation and budding in
secondary protonems.
 E.g. Funaria, polytrichum, Sphagnum.
Economic importance of mosses-
 Mosses provide food for birds, herbivorous mammals.
 Sphagnum mosses provides peat, which is used as fuel.
 Mosses serve as packing material for transport of living materials
due to their significant water holding capacity.
 Mosses are first living beings to grow on rocks like lichens.
 Bryophytes (Mosses) decompose rocks to form soil and make it
suitable for growth of other plants.
 Dense growth of mosses checks soil erosion and thus, helps in
stabilizing soil. i.e. act as soil binders.
Pteridophyta -
 Pteridophytes are first vascular and true land plants.
 First successful terrestrial plants with true roots, stem and
leaves.
 Plants with primitive conducting system.
 Only cryptogams with vascular tissue.
 Late Paleozoic era is regarded as the age of Pteridophytes.
 Plants and pinnate (feather like) leaves in ferns.
 Leaves may be small, microphylls as in Selaginella or large,
macrophylls as in Nephrolepis / Ferns.
 Grow in moist, shady places. Some are aquatic forms. E.g.Azolla,
Masilea, some xerophytic (Equisetum) and some are epiphytic
(Lycopodium).
Pteridophyta – contd.
 Show sporophytic and gametophytic stages in their life cycle e.g.
Ferns, Horsetail.
 Heteromorphic alternation of generation with diploid
sporophytic generation dominant, autotropic and independent.
 The dominant sporophytic generation differentiated into root,
stem and leaves.
 The short lived primary root is replaced by adventitious root
while the stem may be aerial or underground.
 The leaves are scaly (Equisetum), simple and sessile
(Lycopodium) large pinnate (ferns).
 Vascular tissue xyrem consists of only tracheids while phloem
consists of only sieve cells. Cambium is absent hence no
secondary growth takes place.
Pteridophyta – contd.
 Pteridophytes are further classified into 4 classes.
Psilopsida – Psilotum
Lycopsida – Lycopodium. Blad
e
Sphenopsida – Equisetum.
Pteropsida – Dryopteris, Pteris,
Adiantum, Nephrolepis.

Neph rolepi s
(Fern)
Phanerogams ( seed producing plant )
 Divides into two groups-
a. Gymnosperms and
b. Angiosperm.
 Gymnosperms –
 Gymnos: naked, sperma: seed) i.e. plants with naked seeds.
 The term – first used by Theophrastus in 300 B.C.
 In world, there are about 70 genera and 1000 species.
 In India 16 genera and 53 species.
 Evergreen, shrub or woody trees.
 Primitive group of flowering plant producing naked seed.
 Seeds not covered by fruit i.e. ovary
 Vascular plant having xylem with tracheids and phloem with sieve cell.
 Plant body is sporophyte, differentiated into root, stem and leaves.
 Root – tap root, in some forms symbiotic association with BGA.
E.g. coralloid root of cycus
 Association with endophytic fungi called micorrhizae e.g. pinus
Phanerogams ( seed producing plant ) contd.
 Stem – erect, aerial, solid, cylindrical.
 Shows secondary growth due to presence of cambium.
 May be unbranched or branched.
 Unbranched – known as cycadels e.g. Cycus
 Branched – known as conifers e.g. pinus.
 Leaves –are diamorphic i.e. foliage and scaly leaves.
 Foliage – green, simple, needle like or pinnately compound.
 Scaly leaves – small, membranous and brown.

Foliage- Scale
Sporophyte- leaf leaf
cycus
Phanerogams ( seed producing plant ) contd.
 Shows heterosporous condition microspore and megaspore .
 Microsporophyll –microsporangia-microspore(pollen grain)
 Megasporophyll- megasporangia –megaspore(ovules)
 Microsporophyll forms male cone/ strobillus and megasporophyll
 Forms female cone/ strobillus.
Pinus
sporophyte
continue ---

 Pollination is anemophilous and direct

 Fertilization –through pollen tube –siphonogamy.

 Vegetative reproduction by bulbil formation.

 Heteromorphic alternation of generation

 Sporophytic generation is diploid, dominant,
autotrophic, independent
 Gametophytic generation- haploid, recessive,
dependent.
 Ginkgo biloba is called living fossil – found in living
as well as fossil form.
 Gymnosperm vary in their size.
Sequoia, Sempervirens – tallest ( 366 ft.)living
plant of world.
- Coast red wood of California.
Taxodium mucronatum – girth about 125 ft.
Zamia pygmaea – smallest gymnosperm (25 cm.)
Economic importance of Gymnosperm-
 Cycus is grown as an ornamental plant.
 Pinus is a source of pine wood, turpentine oil and pine resin.
 Used as a decorative article in museums, exhibitions, etc.