Definition of Plant Kingdom

By Plant Kingdom we mean all the variety of plants that exist on the planet, which is also known as kingdom plantae.

It is estimated that there are more than 300,000 described species of plants and curiously half are found in tropical ecosystems, as climatic conditions and the effect of the sun promote this circumstance.

Despite the great diversity, most plants share some similar characteristics: they are predominantly green, they perform the photosynthesis and they live almost entirely on the ground.

Regarding their structure, plants have three different parts: the roots, the stems and the leaves. The roots form their underground part and stabilize them in the soil, their main function being to absorb the Water and the minerals of the earth. The stem is the essential part of the plant and its tissues also store water and food (there are herbaceous and woody stems). As for the leaves, it is where photosynthesis takes place (the process of assimilation of sunlight, water and carbon dioxide that are transformed into their nutrients main).

Classification of plants and taxonomy

The scientific community has created a classification system to understand and catalog all the variety of plants on the planet.

Thus, the plant kingdom is divided into groups that are gradually reduced depending on the similarities between the plants in each group.

The first level or division of the kingdom is the phylum (a total of ten) and each of them is divided to its time into classes, which is also subdivided into orders, then the order is again divided into families and each family in genres. Finally, the gender it is subdivided into species.

This classification system is like a genealogical tree of all plants and as a structuring model it allows to know the individual and general aspects of the plant kingdom. In order for biologists and botanists to share knowledge, it is essential that the classification criteria, the which are produced through taxonomy, an auxiliary science that orders and regulates everything that exists in nature and in its different kingdoms. Interestingly, taxonomy is one of the few disciplines in which Latin continues to be used.

Taxonomy as an explanatory system was created in its modern version by the Swedish naturalist Carl von Linnéo in the 18th century, who totally renewed the concepts that served as ordering of nature, which came from the theories of Aristotle of the century IV a. C.