Vascular Plants Fossil range: Early Silurian - Recent
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Divisions
Non-seed-bearing plants †Rhyniophyta †Zosterophyllophyta Lycopodiophyta †Trimerophytophyta Pteridophyta Superdivision Spermatophyta †Pteridospermatophyta Pinophyta Cycadophyta Ginkgophyta Gnetophyta Magnoliophyta

Vascular plants (also known as tracheophytes or higher plants) are those plants that have lignified tissues for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant. Vascular plants include the ferns, clubmosses, flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms. Scientific names for the group include Tracheophyta ^[1]and Tracheobionta^[2], but neither name is very widely used.^{[citation needed]} For other uses, see Silurian (disambiguation). ... Download high resolution version (474x906, 107 KB)Scots pine. ... Scientific classification or biological classification refers to how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... For other uses, see Plant (disambiguation). ... Rhyniophyta were among the first modern-style land plants, which seem to have been fully vacular (they used tubes to carry nutrients through their stems), and may have been direct descendants of cooksonia, the very first land plants thought to start to develop a vascular system. ... Genera Crenaticaulis Gosslingia Gumuia Rebuchia Sawdonia Serrulacaulis Zosterophyllum The Zosterophyllaceae or Zosterophylls (class Zosterophyllopsida) were among the first vascular plants in the fossil record. ... Classes Lycopodiopsida - clubmosses Selaginellopsida - spikemosses Isoetopsida - quillworts The Division Lycopodiophyta (sometimes called Lycophyta) is a tracheophyte subdivision of the Kingdom Plantae. ... A division of early land plant from the Devonian containing genera such as Psilophyton. ... This article is about the group of pteridophyte plants. ... The spermatophytes comprise those plants that produce seeds. ... Pteridospermatophyta, also called seed ferns, is an extinct gymnosperm division of the Plantae kingdom. ... Orders & Families Cordaitales † Pinales   Pinaceae - Pine family   Araucariaceae - Araucaria family   Podocarpaceae - Yellow-wood family   Sciadopityaceae - Umbrella-pine family   Cupressaceae - Cypress family   Cephalotaxaceae - Plum-yew family   Taxaceae - Yew family Vojnovskyales † Voltziales † “Conifer” redirects here. ... Families Cycadaceae cycas family Stangeriaceae stangeria family Zamiaceae zamia family Leaves and male cone of Cycas revoluta Cycads are an ancient group of seed plants characterized by a large crown of compound leaves and a stout trunk. ... Binomial name Ginkgo biloba L. The Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), sometimes also known as the Maidenhair tree, is a unique tree with no living relatives. ... taxa: Gnetales Welwitschiales Ephedrales The plant division Gnetophyta or gnetophytes comprise three related families of woody plants grouped in the gymnosperms, a paraphyletic group of seed plant divisions. ... Classes Magnoliopsida - Dicots Liliopsida - Monocots The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of land plants. ... For other uses, see Plant (disambiguation). ... Lignin (sometimes lignen) is a chemical compound (complex, highly cross-linked aromatic polymer) that is most commonly derived from wood and is an integral part of the cell walls of plants, especially in tracheids, xylem fibres and sclereids. ... Biological tissue is a group of cells that perform a similar function. ... This article is about the group of pteridophyte plants. ... Families Lycopodiaceae Huperziaceae The Class Lycopodiopsida includes the clubmosses. ... Classes Magnoliopsida - Dicots Liliopsida - Monocots The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of land plants. ... Orders & Families Cordaitales † Pinales   Pinaceae - Pine family   Araucariaceae - Araucaria family   Podocarpaceae - Yellow-wood family   Sciadopityaceae - Umbrella-pine family   Cupressaceae - Cypress family   Cephalotaxaceae - Plum-yew family   Taxaceae - Yew family Vojnovskyales † Voltziales † The conifers, division Pinophyta, are one of 13 or 14 division level taxa within the Kingdom Plantae. ... Divisions Pinophyta (or Coniferophyta) - Conifers Ginkgophyta - Ginkgo Cycadophyta - Cycads Gnetophyta - Gnetum, Ephedra, Welwitschia The gymnosperms (Gymnospermae) are a group of spermatophyte seed-bearing plants with ovules on the edge or blade of an open sporophyll, the sporophylls usually arranged in cone-like structures. ...

Characteristics

Vascular plants are distinguished by two primary characteristics:

1. Vascular plants have vascular tissues, which circulate resources through the plant. This feature allows vascular plants to evolve to a larger size than non-vascular plants, which lack these specialized conducting tissues and are therefore restricted to relatively small sizes.
2. In vascular plants, the principal generation phase is the sporophyte, which is usually diploid with two sets of chromosomes per cell. By contrast, the principal generation phase in non-vascular plants is usually the gametophyte, which is haploid with one set of chromosomes per cell.

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. Group of plants having lignified conducting tissue (xylem vessels or tracheids). Cross section of celery stalk, showing vascular bundles, which include both phloem and xylem. ... Sporic or diplohaplontic life cycle. ... Young sporophytes of the common moss Tortula muralis. ... Diploid (meaning double in Greek) cells have two copies (homologs) of each chromosome (both sex- and non-sex determining chromosomes), usually one from the mother and one from the father. ... In plants that undergo alternation of generations, a gametophyte is the structure, or phase of life, that contains only half of the total complement of chromosomes: The sporophyte produces spores, in a process called meiosis. ... Haploid (meaning simple in Greek) cells have only one copy of each chromosome. ... In vascular plants, xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue, phloem being the other one. ... In vascular plants, phloem is the living tissue that carries organic nutrients, particularly sucrose, a sugar, to all parts of the plant where needed. ...

Phylogeny

A proposed phylogeny of the vascular plants after Kenrick and Crane^[3] is as follows, with modification to the Pteridophyta from Smith et al.^[4]

Nutrient distribution

Photographs showing xylem elements in the shoot of a fig tree (Ficus alba): crushed in hydrochloric acid, between slides and cover slips.

Nutrients and water from the soil and the organic compound produces in leaves are distributed to specific areas in the plant through the xylem and phloem. The xylem draws water and nutrients up from the roots to the upper sections of the plant's body, and the phloem conducts other materials, such as the glucose produced during photosynthesis, which gives the plant energy to keep growing and seeding. Download high resolution version (1771x991, 303 KB)Photos of vessels at (Ficus sp). ... Download high resolution version (1771x991, 303 KB)Photos of vessels at (Ficus sp). ... In vascular plants, xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue, phloem being the other one. ... Species About 800, including: Ficus altissima Ficus americana Ficus aurea Ficus benghalensis- Indian Banyan Ficus benjamina- Weeping Fig Ficus broadwayi Ficus carica- Common Fig Ficus citrifolia Ficus coronata Ficus drupacea Ficus elastica Ficus godeffroyi Ficus grenadensis Ficus hartii Ficus lyrata Ficus macbrideii Ficus macrophylla- Moreton Bay Fig Ficus microcarpa- Chinese... Hydrochloric acid is the aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride gas (HCl). ... A nutrient is a substance used in an organisms metabolism which must be taken in from the environment. ... In vascular plants, xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue, phloem being the other one. ... In vascular plants, phloem is the living tissue that carries organic nutrients, particularly sucrose, a sugar, to all parts of the plant where needed. ... Glucose (Glc), a monosaccharide (or simple sugar), is an important carbohydrate in biology. ... Photosynthesis splits water to liberate O2 and fixes CO2 into sugar The leaf is the primary site of photosynthesis in plants. ... Seed is used to refer to: Look up seed in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The xylem consists of tracheids, which are dead hard-walled cells arranged to form tiny tubes to function in water transport. A tracheid cell wall usually contains the polymer lignin. The phloem however consists of living cells called sieve-tube members. Between the sieve-tube members are sieve plates, which have pores to allow molecules to pass through. Sieve-tube members lack such organs as nuclei or ribosomes, but cells next to them, the companion cells, function to keep the sieve-tube members alive. Tracheids are elongated cells in the xylem of vascular plants, serving in the transport of water. ... Lignin (sometimes lignen) is a chemical compound (complex, highly cross-linked aromatic polymer) that is most commonly derived from wood and is an integral part of the cell walls of plants, especially in tracheids, xylem fibres and sclereids. ... Sieve tube elements, also called sieve tube members, are a certain type of elongated parenchyma cells in phloem tissue. ...

Movement of nutrients, water, sugars and waste is effected by transpiration, conduction and absorption.

Transpiration

The most abundant compound in most plants is water, serving a large role in the various processes taking place. Transpiration is the main process a plant can call upon to move compounds within its tissues. The basic minerals and nutrients a plant is composed of remain, generally, within the plant. Water, however, is constantly being lost from the plant through its metabolic and photosynthetic processes to the atmosphere. Look up Compound in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Impact from a water drop causes an upward rebound jet surrounded by circular capillary waves. ... Transpiration is the evaporation of excess water from aerial parts and of plants, especially leaves but also stems, flowers and fruits. ... Santorio Santorio (1561-1636) in his steelyard balance, from Ars de statica medecina, first published 1614 Metabolism (from μεταβολισμος(metavallo), the Greek word for change), in the most general sense, is the ingestion and breakdown of complex compounds, coupled with the liberation of energy, and the consequent generation of waste... Leaf. ...

Water is transpired from the plants leaves via stomata, carried there via leaf veins and vascular bundles within the plants cambium layer. The movement of water out of the leaf stomata creates, when the leaves are considered collectively, a transpiration pull. The pull is created through water surface tension within the plant cells. The draw of water upwards is assisted by the movement of water into the roots via osmosis. This process also assists the plant in absorbing nutrients from the soil as soluble salts, a process known as absorption. This is not about surgically created bowel openings; see stoma (medicine) In botany, a stoma (also stomate; plural stomata) is a tiny opening or pore, found mostly on the undersurface of a plant leaf, and used for gas exchange. ... In biology, a vein is a blood vessel which carries blood toward the heart. ... Vascular cambium is a tissue found in the stems of perennial dicots. ... This box:      Surface tension is an effect within the surface layer of a liquid that causes that layer to behave as an elastic sheet. ... Osmosis is the spontaneous net movement of water across a semipermeable membrane from a region of low solute concentration to a solution with a high solute concentration, down a solute concentration gradient. ... For other meanings of the word salt see table salt or salt (disambiguation). ...

Absorption

Xylem cells move water and nutrient solutions upwards towards other plant organs from the roots and fine root hairs. Living roots cells actively absorb water in the absence of transpiration pull via osmosis creating root pressure. There are times when plants do not have transpiration pull, usually due to lack of light or other environmental elements. Water in the plant tissues may move to the roots to assist in passive absorption. In vascular plants, xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue, phloem being the other one. ... An organ is the following: In anatomy, an organ is a group of tissues which perform some function. ... For other uses, see Root (disambiguation). ...

Conduction

Xylem and phloem tissues are involved in the conduction processes within plants. The movement of foods throughout the plant takes place mainly in the phloem. Plant conduction (food movement) is from an area of high food content, place of manufacture (photosynthesis) or storage, to a place of food utilisation, or from a point of manufacture to storage tissues. Mineral salts are translocated in the xylem tissues.^[5] In vascular plants, xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue, phloem being the other one. ... In vascular plants, phloem is the living tissue that carries organic nutrients, particularly sucrose, a sugar, to all parts of the plant where needed. ... Photosynthesis splits water to liberate O2 and fixes CO2 into sugar The leaf is the primary site of photosynthesis in plants. ...

See also

• Fern allies
• Non-vascular plant

Fern ally is a general term covering a somewhat diverse group of vascular plants that are not flowering plants and not true ferns. ... Divisions Simple nonvascular plants   Green algae Complex nonvascular plants   Bryophyta, mosses   Marchantiophyta, liverworts   Anthocerotophyta, hornworts Non-vascular plants is a general term for those plants (including the green algae) without a vascular system (xylem and phloem). ...

References