Vascular plant

From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids

The vascular plants are plants in the kingdom Plantae (also called Viridiplantae) that have specialized tissues for conducting water. Vascular plants include the ferns, clubmosses, horsetails, flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms. Scientific names are Tracheophyta and Tracheobionta, but neither is very widely used. Nonvascular plants include both earlier-derived lineages in Plantae (mosses, hornworts, and liverworts) and members of other kingdoms (the various algae).

The vascular plants are set apart in two important ways:

1. Vascular plants have vascular tissues, enabling the plants to evolve to a larger size. Non-vascular plants lack these and are restricted to relatively small sizes.
2. In vascular plants, the principal generation phase is the sporophyte, which is diploid with two sets of chromosomes per cell. In non-vascular plants, the principal generation phase is often the gametophyte, which is haploid with one set of chromosomes per cell. See also alternation of generations.

Water transport happens in either xylem or phloem: xylem carries water and inorganic solutes upward toward the leaves from the roots, while phloem carries organic solutes throughout the plant.

[edit] Members

• Spore-bearing vascular plants
  • Equisetophyta ~ horsetails
  • Lycopodiophyta ~ clubmosses, spikemosses, quillworts
  • Psilotophyta ~ whisk-ferns
  • Pteridophyta~ ferns

• Seed-bearing vascular plants - Superdivision Spermatophyta
  • Pinophyta ~ conifers
  • Cycadophyta ~ cycads
  • Ginkgophyta ~ ginkgoes
  • Gnetophyta ~ gnetophytes
  • Magnoliophyta ~ flowering plants

[edit] See also

• Fern allies