What is a plant?

All the features of plants can readily be understood in the context of their autotrophic mode of nutrition. If plants simply transform light energy into chemical energy then all that is required is for the plant to be anchored firmly in one place with a maximum surface area to capture sunlight. There is no need for plants to move or to have sophisticated nervous systems such as animals need to enable them to find food. (By analogy, have you ever seen a solar water heater that moved? Its not an attribute that householders feel to be necessary!) 

Far from being boring and just sitting there and doing nothing plants by their subtlety are quite intriguing. 

PLANT CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS
There are several plant classification systems and little agreement, e.g. some botanists believe the ferns are a class within the Division Pteridophyta, others consider them a division of their own. In this course, rather than use a formal classification system we will simply refer to these groups by their informal names

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Plant Kingdom    monocotyledons    dicotyledons   Gymnosperms    Ferns   Algae    Fungi    

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