Botanical Classification

BOTANICAL
CLASSIFICATION
Mr Musenda Bpharm (HIT) , Mpharm
Pharmacognosy (SRM)
Major Plant Groups
Thallophyta
■ Thallus-undifferentiated; phyta- plant

■ Their body is not differentiated (means not divided in stems, roots and
leaves.
■ The undifferentiated body is called Thallus.
■ Their vascular system (means there is no xylem and phloem )is
absent.
■ There is no embryo formation.
■ The plants in this group are mainly Algae.
Algae
■ Algae – Thallophytes
■ Chlorophyceae – Green Algae
■ Phaeophyceae – Brown Algae
■ Rhodophyceae – Red Algae
■ Algae are chlorophyll-bearing, simple, thalloid, autotrophic and
largely aquatic (both fresh water and marine) organisms.
■ They occur in a variety of other habitats: moist stones, soils and
wood. Some of them also occur in association with fungi (lichen)
Algae and their characteristics
Bryophytes
■ The Phylum is divided into classes :
 Liverworts are leafy – like thallus
 Mosses are leafy plant with stem
 Hornworts
 They are short plants mostly growing in wet and shady environments.
■ Bryophytes have a waxy cuticle on their leaves to prevent desiccation.
■ have no internal vascular system.
■ Have root-like threads called rhizoids
■ Mosses look like little trees and often form carpet-like mats on the forest floor
• They reproduce by spores
• Bryophytes spend most of their lives as haploids: the body of the moss plant is
haploid.
• The only diploid structure is a stalk and spore capsule, which grow out of the
haploid plant body.
liverworts
mosses
Bryophyte Life Cycle
■ The haploid gametophyte
plant bodies are either male or
female. Each produces a
different kind of gamete (eggs
or sperm).
■ The sperm are motile: they
swim through drops of water
(rain or dew) to reach the
eggs. The eggs are encased
within the female
gametophyte’s body.
• After fertilization, the diploid sporophyte grows as a stalk out of the
female gametophyte’s body.
• After the diploid sporophyte matures, the cells in it undergo meiosis,
forming haploid spores.
• The haploid spores disperse in the wind, and go on to form new
gametophyte plants.
Individual characteristics
– the Liverworts
■ Simplest of plants (gametophytes are dominate
■ Flat leafy body lacking cuticle, stomata, roots, stems or leaves
– the Hornworts
■ Dominate gametophyte and have stomata
– the Mosses
■ Small, most have simple vascular tissue
■ Sporophyte with slender stalk and spore capsule
■ “leafy” green gametophyte that lacks roots, stems and leaves
Pteridophyta
 Ferns e.g. Male fern rhizome

 Horsetails e.g. Equisetum
 Club mosses e.g. Lycopodium
Lycopodium
fern
Equisetum
■ The are seedless vascular plants.
■ A vascular system to distribute nutrients throughout the plant allows
them to grow tall. Some ferns grow up to 80 feet tall, and some
extinct horsetails were also tree-sized.
■ Being seedless means that the diploid sporophyte grows out of the
fertilized egg, attached to the gametophyte.
■ Fern leaves Leaves are called fronds
■ A fiddlehead is a tightly coiled new leaf
■ Underground stem called a rhizome
Fern Life Cycle
■ The main plant body
in the diploid
sporophyte.
Specialized structures
on the underside of
the leaves develop,
and inside them
meiosis occurs.
■ The haploid meiotic
products are released
as spores, which are
dispersed to new
locations and
germinate into
gametophytes.
• The haploid gametophytes are quite small, a few millimeters in
diameter. They contain structures that produce sperm and eggs.
• The sperm swim to the eggs and fertilize them
• The fertilized eggs are diploid, and they grow into the sporophyte
plant body.
Spermatophyta
(Seed- bearing Plants)
■ A major development in plant
evolution was the development of
pollen grains and seeds.
■ Pollen grains are the male
gametophyte packaged in a hard
coat that allows it to reach the
female without having to swim
through water. This is a large
advantage on dry land.
■ Seeds are diploid sporophyte
embryos, packaged to survive a
period of dormancy and bad
environmental conditions. Seeds
develop from the fertilized egg.
Spermatophyta
Gymnosperms
■ These are nonflowering plants
■ Gymnosperms were the first plants to
have pollen grains and seeds.
■ Gymnosperm means “naked seed”:
their seeds develop on the outside of
the plant, instead of inside an ovary as
in the flowering plants. (i.e Seeds are
not surrounded by a fruit)
■ Seeds are produced inside cones
■ The most important gymnosperms
today are the conifers (pines,
redwoods, cedars,) .All are woody plants
with needles or scales as leaves.
■ Conifers are our main source of wood
and paper.
■ Ginkos and cycads are other
gymnosperms.
Gymnosperms: Conifers
■ Most have green leaves all year long

■ They are called evergreens
■ Leaves are shaped like needles
■ Makes it easier to live in dry places and store water
■ Grow in places where other plants cannot grow (shallow, rocky soil
and along coast)
Some facts
■ Contains the oldest living

plant – Bristle cone pine
■ Contains the tallest living
plant – Sequoia or
redwood
Spermatophyta
Angiosperms
■ Angiosperms are flowering plants. Most of the plants
we see are angiosperms.
■ A capsule, or fruit, protects the seeds of angiosperms
■ Unlike the other plant groups, angiosperms are often
fertilized with the aid of animals: insects, birds, bats,
that carry the pollen from one plant to another. The
plants and their pollinators have co-evolved in a
symbiotic relationship.
■ Flowers produce the visual signals and the scents
that pollinators use to find the plants. Flowers
secrete nectar which is eaten by the pollinators. The
pollen is carried from flower to flower on the body of
the pollinator, as a consequence of its going into the
flower in search of nectar.
■ Some angiosperms have wind-dispersed pollen.
Flowers on these plants are usually small and
inconspicuous.
■ Angiosperms are divided into two groups:
– Dicots
– Monocots
Angiosperms
■ Monocots have a single seed cotyledon

■ Dicots have two seed cotyledons
dicots
monocots

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BOTANICAL

■ Thallus-undifferentiated; phyta- plant

 Ferns e.g. Male fern rhizome

■ Most have green leaves all year long

■ Contains the oldest living

■ Monocots have a single seed cotyledon

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