The plants They are living beings that belong to a kingdom of nature called Plantae, in which we find a series of organisms that cannot move from one place to another, and autotrophs, that is, they produce their own food through the process of photosynthesis.
We find them in an important part of the earth's surface and we often distinguish them by their green color, by the striking flowers that some have or by the great variety of shapes and sizes that they can acquire.
They are everywhere: part of this group of organisms are the grasses on football fields and in city squares, the trees in parks and forests, the shrubs with which we decorate our gardens, the flowers with which we adorn our gardens. dining table, among many others.
Although plants are extremely diverse, both in shape, size, way of life, climate, physiological needs or type of reproduction, they share a set of characteristics that allows them to be grouped into the same category of organisms.
Plants are multicellular eukaryotic organisms, which means that they are composed of cells inside which there are "divisions" or "compartments" surrounded by membranes that separate certain components from the rest of the elements of the cytosol..
We call these compartments cellular organelles. As eukaryotic organisms, their most characteristic organelle is the nucleus, which is the place in the cell where hereditary material known as deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA is stored..
However, plant cells are distinguished from other eukaryotic cells such as those of animals or fungi, by the presence of three special components:
One of the main characteristics of plants is that they are autotrophic organisms, that is, they produce the energy necessary to live from carbon dioxide (CO2) and inorganic substances..
This makes plants primary producers in all ecosystems, since they form their bodies of organic matter (like that of our body and that of any other animal) from inorganic substances that they take from the soil and thanks to the light energy of the sun..
This amazing capacity of plants is possible thanks to chloroplasts, inside which a large part of the photosynthesis reactions take place and where a pigment called chlorophyll is found..
Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, thanks to energy from the sun, CO2 from the atmosphere, and water and minerals from the soil, convert light energy into chemical energy. In this way they can carry out the synthesis of carbohydrates to form their tissues and organs, and on which heterotrophic organisms later feed..
There are some plants considered carnivorous that, although they are not very abundant (less than 600 species worldwide), can feed on some insects or very small animals.
Plants are sessile organisms, that is, they cannot move from one place to another at will, not even due to lack of water, because they do not get the sun or because they do not have enough air to breathe..
Consider the example of a tree seed:
When this germinates in a certain place and the "baby" plant (seedling) begins to develop with its roots and small leaves, it is most likely that this is the final place of the adult tree until it dies, unless some human transplant before or be eaten by another animal.
For this reason, the success of a plant in an ecosystem not only depends on the existence of suitable conditions for its development, but also on whether it is sufficiently "plastic" to adapt to environmental changes and manages to "manage" deficiencies in some way. or the excesses with which it is achieved during its life.
The kingdom of plants is formed mainly by 4 divisions, where they include:
The most common distinction that is made between plants is made regarding how fluids conduct within them, which is why the vascular plants and the non-vascular plants.
Non-vascular plants are those that do not have internal "pipes" for the transport of water and nutrients. They are small plants that distribute water between their cells by osmosis.
The thalophytes and bryophytes belong to this group of plants. Bryophytes are mosses, liverworts, and hornworts, all non-vascular land plants. Thalophytes, on the other hand, are non-vascular aquatic plants, often known as algae..
Vascular plants are all terrestrial plants. All plants that have differentiated and specialized tissues for transporting water and substances made throughout the body belong to this group..
They are more specifically known as tracheophytes and are represented by seed plants and seedless plants. This is the group of organisms to which the plants that we normally associate with the term "plant" belong, that is, trees, shrubs, herbs, flowers, ferns, etc..
They have defined bodies in root, stem, and leaves, and their vascular tissues are known as phloem and xylem. The phloem is responsible for the transport of "food" or the substance made throughout the plant, while the xylem is responsible for the transport of water from the root to the leaves..
The vascular seedless plants are the pteridophytes. Ferns, horsetails, and lycophytes are pteridophytes. These plants have vascular systems, but they reproduce mainly by spores.
Seed plants are the most abundant and diverse group of plants. They are classified according to the characteristics of their seeds, which can be covered or bare. In many texts they are known as phanerogams.
Angiosperms are flowering plants with covered seeds, meanwhile gymnosperms are those plants that have flowers, but their seeds are bare.
Plants, like animals, have well-defined organs, made up of specific tissues. In general, then, we say that a plant is characterized by having:
The roots help the plants to hold on to the ground. Through them they “suck” the water and the inorganic nutrients contained in the soil. Some roots serve as a food storage site for plants, and many of these are what we consume every day, such as potatoes, for example.
The stems form the main structure of the plant body, continuing with the root and supporting the branches, leaves, flowers and fruits (when there are any). The vascular system with the xylem and phloem components runs inside the stems, transporting substances throughout the plant..
The leaves represent the main photosynthetic tissue of plants, through which carbohydrates and other organic compounds are produced for the construction of the plant body..
Flowers, fruits and seeds are structures that only vascular seed plants possess and are, in essence, reproductive and dispersal structures.
See full article: parts of the plants.
Plants reproduce in different ways. The type of plant reproduction depends considerably on the species in question, but also on the conditions in which it is found.
Many plant species reproduce sexually, which has important benefits from the point of view of acquiring new adaptations to survive in certain places..
Sexual reproduction can be by means of spores or sex cells (gametes) and may or may not end with the production of seeds, as in angiosperms and gymnosperms, for example..
However, sexual reproduction in plants always results from a division event by meiosis, during which it is possible to mix the genes of two different individuals to produce genetically different offspring each time..
Other plants, in turn, can reproduce asexually, creating "clones" of themselves that facilitate their multiplication and dispersal. Asexual reproduction differs from sexual reproduction in that it is the product of mitotic divisions, in which daughter cells are genetically identical to “mother” cells..
The asexual reproduction of plants is an extremely relevant characteristic. It is not very common for an animal to cut off a limb and expect a copy of itself to form from the limb, but this is possible for many plants.
Plants need light, water, carbon dioxide, and mineral (inorganic) nutrients to survive.
They are nourished by photosynthesis, a process by which light energy is converted into chemical energy, which is stored in the form of carbohydrates. This process occurs in chloroplasts thanks to the participation of a photosynthetic pigment known as chlorophyll and numerous enzymes..
During photosynthesis, plants take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and fix the carbon in the form of organic molecules, releasing oxygen in the process..
Plants also breathe, that is, they need to exchange gases with the environment that surrounds them. During respiration, these organisms consume the nutrients formed during photosynthesis to keep their cells alive, taking oxygen from the environment and releasing carbon dioxide, the reverse of photosynthesis..
Plants do not have lungs, like many animals, but they do have small openings in many of their tissues called stomata (in the leaves) or lenticels (in the stems), through which both oxygen and CO2 enter and are releases water vapor during perspiration.
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