Plants are a major group of living things (about 300,000 species), including familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, and ferns. Aristotle divided all living things between plants, which generally do not move or have sensory organs, and animals. In Linnaeus' system, these became the Kingdoms Vegetabilia (later Plantae) and Animalia. 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 ...

Including:

• Plant - Embryophytes
• Plant - Algae and Fungi
• Plant - Importance
• Plant - Growth
• Plant - Fossils
• Plant - Distribution
• Plant - References and further reading

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There are 10 families: Adelgidae - adelgids, conifer aphids Anoeciidae Aphididae Drepanosiphidae Greenideidae Hormaphididae Lachnidae Mindaridae Pemphigidae Phloeomyzidae Phylloxeridae Thelaxidae Aphids, also known as greenfly/blackfly or plant lice, are minute plant-feeding insects in the superfamily Aphidoidea in the homopterous division of the order Hemiptera. About 4,000 species ...

Including:

• Aphid - Anatomy
• Aphid - Diet
• Aphid - Reproduction
• Aphid - Evolution

Read more here: » Aphid: Encyclopedia - Aphid

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 i ...

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Most familiar are the multicellular land plants, called embryophytes. They include the vascular plants, plants with full systems of leaves, stems, and roots. They also include a few of their close relatives, often called bryophytes, of which mosses and liverworts are the most common. All of these plants have eukaryotic cells with cell walls composed of cellulose, and most obtain their energy through photosynthesis, using light and carbon dioxide to synthesize food. About three hundred plant species do not photosynthesize but ar ...

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Plant, Plant - Embryophytes, Plant - Algae and Fungi, Plant - Importance, Plant - Growth, Plant - Fossils, Plant - Distribution, Plant - References and further reading

Read more here: » Plant: Encyclopedia II - Plant - Embryophytes

Apart from their importance from the economic standpoint, Aphids are chiefly remarkable for the phenomena connected with the propagation of the species. For part of all of their life, aphids are often found to be parthenogenetic. Aphids have been known to have what is called telescoping generations. With telescoping generations the female aphid will have a daughter within her who is already parthenogenetically producing its own daughter at the same time. At different times of the year, they can be viviparous or oviparous. During spring and s ...

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Aphid, Aphid - Anatomy, Aphid - Diet, Aphid - Reproduction, Aphid - Evolution

Read more here: » Aphid: Encyclopedia II - Aphid - Reproduction

Many, but far from all, aphids are monophaguous (i.e. feeding only on 1 species of plant). Similar to related superfamilies they passively feed on sap of phloem vessels in plants. This sap being kept under high pressure, once a phloem vessel is punctured, it is forced into the food canal. Aphids actively 'drink' (suck) from xylem vessels when thirsty. Some species of ants "farm" aphids, supplying them with leaves to eat, and eating the honeydew that the aphids secrete. Many aphids are host to an endosymbiont bacteria, Buchnera, which synthesizes the essential amino acids that are absent in t ...

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Aphid, Aphid - Anatomy, Aphid - Diet, Aphid - Reproduction, Aphid - Evolution

Read more here: » Aphid: Encyclopedia II - Aphid - Diet

Plant fossils include roots, wood, leaves, seeds, fruit, pollen, spores, phytoliths, and amber (the fossilized resin produced by some plants). Fossil land plants are recorded in terrestrial, lacustrine, fluvial and nearshore marine sediments. Pollen, spores and algae (dinoflagellates and acritarchs) are used for dating sedimentary rock sequences. The remains of fossil plants are not as common as fossil animals, although plant fossils are locally ab ...

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Plant, Plant - Embryophytes, Plant - Algae and Fungi, Plant - Importance, Plant - Growth, Plant - Fossils, Plant - Distribution, Plant - References and further reading

Read more here: » Plant: Encyclopedia II - Plant - Fossils

The algae comprise several different groups of organisms that produce energy through photosynthesis. However, they are not classified within the kingdom plantae but in the kingdom protista instead. The most conspicuous are the seaweeds, multicellular algae that often closely resemble terrestrial plants, but as stated above are not plants, found among the green, red, and brown algae. These and other algal groups also include various single-celled creatures and forms that are simple collections of cells, without differentiated tissues. Many ca ...

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Plant, Plant - Embryophytes, Plant - Algae and Fungi, Plant - Importance, Plant - Growth, Plant - Fossils, Plant - Distribution, Plant - References and further reading

Read more here: » Plant: Encyclopedia II - Plant - Algae and Fungi

The photosynthesis and carbon fixation conducted by land plants and algae are the ultimate source of energy and organic material in nearly all habitats. These processes also radically changed the composition of the Earth's atmosphere, which as a result contains a large proportion of oxygen. Animals and most other organisms are aerobic, relying on oxygen; those that do not are confined to relatively few, anaerobic environments. Much of human nutrition depends on cereals. Other plants that are eaten include fruits, vegetables, herbs, an ...

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Plant, Plant - Embryophytes, Plant - Algae and Fungi, Plant - Importance, Plant - Growth, Plant - Fossils, Plant - Distribution, Plant - References and further reading

Read more here: » Plant: Encyclopedia II - Plant - Importance

It is a common misconception that most of the solid material in a plant is taken from the soil, when in fact almost all of it is actually taken from the air. Through a process known as photosynthesis, plants use the energy in sunlight to convert carbon dioxide from the air into simple sugars. These sugars are then used as building blocks and form the main structural component of the plant. Plants rely on soil primarily for water (in quantitative terms), but also obtain nitrogen, phospho ...

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Plant, Plant - Embryophytes, Plant - Algae and Fungi, Plant - Importance, Plant - Growth, Plant - Fossils, Plant - Distribution, Plant - References and further reading

Read more here: » Plant: Encyclopedia II - Plant - Growth

The most typical organ of aphids is their piercing-sucking mouthparts called stylets. They have soft bodies, long, thin legs, two-jointed, two-clawed tarsi, and usually a pair of abdominal tubes through which a waxy secretion is exuded. These tubes were formerly supposed to secrete the sweet substance known as "honeydew" so much sought after by ants; but this is now known to come from the alimentary canal. Both winged and wingless forms of both sexes occur; the wings when present are two pairs, lacy, transparent and only have one prominent l ...

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Aphid, Aphid - Anatomy, Aphid - Diet, Aphid - Reproduction, Aphid - Evolution

Read more here: » Aphid: Encyclopedia II - Aphid - Anatomy