Flowering plants are a type of vascular plant that produces flowers in order to reproduce. Flowering plants produce seeds within a fruit. The scientific name for flowering plants is angiosperms.

Life-cycle of a Flowering Plants

Flowering plants follow a specific life cycle.

• Seed – They begin their lives as seeds. Seeds are like baby plants. They have a hard outer shell that protects the seed embryo inside.
• Germination – The seed ends up on the ground. It needs air, water, and soil to grow. When a seed begins to grow, this is called germination. The first growth will usually be some small roots. Then stems will grow.
• Sprout or seedling – When the first sign of life appears above the soil, this is called a sprout or seedling.
• Mature plant – The seedling will continue to grow into a full mature plant with leaves, roots, and stems.
• Flowering – The mature plant will grow flowers. Through pollination, the flowers will produce seeds. When the seeds end up on the ground, the cycle will begin again.

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Flower

Flowers are the reproductive organs of the flowering plants.

The main structures of a flower include:

• Sepal – The sepal is a support structure for the petal. It is typically green and helps to protect and hold up the petal. All the sepals together are called the calyx.
• Petal – The petals are the bright colorful leaves of the flower. The petals are often bright and colorful in order to attract insects that help with pollination. All of the petals together are called the corolla.
• Stamen – The stamen is the part of the flower that produces pollen. There are two main parts of the stamen: the filament and anther.
• Filament – The filament is the stalk that holds the anther.
• Anther – The anther is made up of lobes that attach to the filament. These lobes hold sacs which contain pollen.
• Pistil – The pistil is the female part of the flower. It contains the carpel and the stigma.
• Stigma – The stigma is the area where pollen is received. The stigma may be located at the end of a stalk called the style.
• Carpel – The carpel is the ovary of the flower and contains ovules which are potential seeds.

Fruit

Fruits are a way which many plants spread their seeds. Fruits are formed after the flower is fertilized with pollen. The ovules in the pistil will become seeds and the flower will transform into a fruit.

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Seed

The seed is the embryo of a plant. Sort of like a baby plant. Seeds come in all sizes shapes and colors depending on the type of plant. Inside the seed is a plant embryo, food for the embryo, and a seed coat to protect it.

Seeds may be dispersed by a number of ways including air, water, and animals. Some seeds are light and have hairs or wings that help them to float in the air. Other seeds can float on the water and disperse by riding on rivers and streams. Still other seeds have tasty fruit that animals eat and then get dispersed in the animals’ droppings.

Pollination

In order for an ovary to become a seed, it must receive pollen. Insects and birds can play an important role in pollinating plants. When an insect or bird is attracted to a flower by its bright color, they get pollen on them. As they move from plant to plant, they move the pollen from one plant to another. This helps the plants to reproduce by creating seeds.

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Photosynthesis

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Food Chain and Food Web

Many plants have flowers that help them to make seeds in order to reproduce. However, some plants do not use flowers to reproduce. These plants are called non-flowering plants.

There are two main groups of non-flowering plants. Plants that use spores to reproduce and plants that use seeds to reproduce. The non-flowering plants that use seeds are called gymnosperms.

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Gymnosperms

Gymnosperm means “naked seeds”. They are called this because their seeds are open to the air with no covering such as the seeds of flowering plants. One of the major groups of gymnosperm plants is the conifer.

Conifers

The word “conifers” means “bearing cones.” Conifers are plants that use cones to house their seeds. Conifers are woody plants and most of them are trees such as pine trees, firs, cypresses, junipers, cedars, and redwoods.

Cones

Conifers reproduce using their cones. Some cones are male and some are female. The male cones release pollen. This pollen is carried by the wind. If the pollen lands on a female cone, then the female cone will produce seeds. The hard scales of the cone protect the new seeds as they grow.

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Seeds

The seeds of a conifer are winged seeds. When they are released by the cone, they will float on the wind until they reach the ground where they will germinate and grow.

Spores

There are some non-flowering plants that don’t produce seeds. Instead, they use spores to reproduce. Spore producing plants include plants such as mosses and ferns.

Spores are tiny organisms that only contain a few cells. Plants that make spores produce huge numbers of them. Because they are so small and light, they can be dispersed by the wind to new locations where they can grow.

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Mosses

Mosses are soft and spongy plants that typically only grow a few inches tall. They tend to grow together in clumps. Mosses don’t have flowers or seeds but use spores to reproduce. They also don’t have typical roots like most plants, but anchor themselves to rocks and soil with short growths called rhizoids.

Ferns

Another type of spore producing plant is the fern. Ferns produce spore casings on the underside of their leaves. These look like brown spots. At some point, the casings dry out and the spores are released into the air.

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Interesting Facts about Non-Flowering Plants

• The leaves of ferns are called fronds.
• Scientists estimate that some species of ferns have been around for over 350 million years.
• Conifers often have needle-shaped leaves. Needles are tough, don’t dry out, and will not easily fall off in high winds. This helps conifers to survive in cold, windy, and dry climates.
• There are over 12,000 different species of mosses.
• Mosses tend to grow in damp areas with plenty of shade.

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Plant are living organisms that cover much of the land of planet Earth. You see them everywhere. They include grass, trees, flowers, bushes, ferns, mosses, and more. Plants are members of the kingdom planet.

Here are some basic characteristics that make a living organism a plant:

• Most plants make their own food through a process called photosynthesis.
• Plants have a cuticle, meaning they have a waxy layer on their surface that protects them and keeps them from drying out.
• They have eukaryotic cells with rigid cell walls.
• They reproduce with spores or with sex cells.

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Plant Cell

Plant cells are composed of rigid cell walls made of cellulose, chloroplasts (which help with photosynthesis), a nucleus, and large vacuoles filled with water.

Energy from the Sun

One of the most important functions of most plants is photosynthesis. Plants use photosynthesis to create energy directly from sunlight.

Types of Plants

There are many different types of plants. They are typically divided into two major groups: vascular and nonvascular.

• Vascular – These plants have specific tissues that help to move materials such as water through the plant. They are further divided into non-flowering plants and flowering plants. Most of the organisms you probably think of as plants, such as trees, bushes, and flowers, fit into this group.
• Non-vascular – These are smaller plants such as mosses that used diffusion and osmosis to move material through the plant.

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Basic Structure of Plants

The three basic parts of most vascular plants are the leaf, the stem, and the roots.

Leaf – The leaf is an organ of a plant that is specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves capture energy from sunlight as well as collect carbon dioxide from the air. Many leaves are flat and thin in order to catch as much sunlight as possible. However, leaves come in many different shapes including long skinny needles that are found on pine trees.

Stem – The stem is the main structure that supports leaves and flowers. Stems have vascular tissues that move food and water around the plant to help it grow. Plants often store food in their stems.

Roots – The roots of a plant grow underground. Roots help to keep the plant from falling over and gather water and minerals from the soil. Some plants store food in their roots. The two major types of roots are fibrous roots and taproots. Taproots tend to have one major root that grows very deep, while fibrous roots have many roots that grow in all directions.

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Interesting Facts about Plants

• The fastest growing woody plant in the world is bamboo. Bamboo can grow up to 35 inches in just one day!
• Tomatoes and avocados are considered fruits.
• Fungi (mushrooms) and algae (seaweed) are not considered plants but are part of their own kingdoms.
• There are nearly 600 different species of carnivorous plants that actually eat insects and small animals.
• The largest flower in the world is the rafflesia which can grow to over three feet in diameter.

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