Portal:Plants
The plants portal
Plants are a major group of life forms and include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, shrubs, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. About 350,000 species of plants, defined as seed plants, bryophytes, ferns and fern allies, are estimated to exist currently. As of 2004, some 287,655 species had been identified, of which 258,650 are flowering and 15,000 bryophytes. Green plants, sometimes called metaphytes, obtain most of their energy from sunlight via a process called photosynthesis.
Aristotle divided all living things between plants (which generally do not move), and animals (which often are mobile to catch their food). In Linnaeus' system, these became the Kingdoms Vegetabilia (later Metaphyta or Plantae) and Animalia (also called Metazoa). Since then, it has become clear that the Plantae as originally defined included several unrelated groups, and the fungi and several groups of algae were removed to new kingdoms. However, these are still often considered plants in many contexts, both technical and popular. Indeed, an attempt to perfectly match "plant" with a single taxon is problematic, because for most people the term plant is only vaguely related to the phylogenic concepts on which modern taxonomy and systematics are based. Selected article
The largest genera of flowering plants include some 57 groups containing 500 or more described species. Among these, the largest is currently the legume genus Astragalus (milk-vetches), with over 3,000 species. Other familiar large genera include the orchid genus Bulbophyllum, with over 2,000 species, Euphorbia (spurges), with more than 1,800 species, and Carex (sedges), with slightly fewer species than Euphorbia.
The sizes of plant genera vary widely from those containing a single species to genera containing thousands of species, and this disparity became clear early in the history of plant classification. The largest genus in Carl Linnaeus' seminal Species Plantarum was Euphorbia, with 56 species; Linnaeus believed that no genus should contain more than 100 species. The introduction of infrageneric taxa (such as the subgenus, section and series) in the 19th century, by botanists including Augustin Pyrame de Candolle, allowed the retention of large genera that would otherwise have become unwieldy. E. J. H. Corner believed that studying large genera might enable greater insights into evolutionary biology, and he concentrated his efforts on large tropical genera such as Ficus (figs). Selected pictureLeaves are the primary sites of photosynthesis. CategoriesRelated topicsBiosphere • Botany • Evolutionary history of plants • Flower • Forest • Fruit • Garden • Gardening • Greenhouse • Houseplant • List of poisonous plants • Paleobotany • Photosynthesis • Plant cell • Plant defense against herbivory • Plant perception (paranormal) • Plant perception (physiology) • Rapid plant movement • Tree • Vegetable • Vegetation • Phytopathology Did you know...
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