Classification of plant

Scientist classify plants into two big groups: flowering plants and non flowering plants. As shown by their names, flowering plants produce flowers and nonflowering plants do not. As in the classification of animals, these two big groups of plants are further divided into smaller groups. Non-flowering plants are further divided into conifers, ferns, mosses and algae. Conifers include pine tree and casuarinas trees. Ferns and mosses reproduce by spores. They grow mainly in damp places. Phytoplankton and seawweds are examples of algae.

Flowering plant
The flowering plants, also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series ofnsynapomorphies (derived characteristics). These characteristics include endosperm within the seeds, and the production of fruits that contain the seeds. The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms around 245202 million years ago, and the first flowering plants known to exist are from 140 million years ago. They diversified enormously during the Lower Cretaceous and became widespread around 100 million years ago, but replaced conifers as the dominant trees only around 60-100 million years ago. Flowering plant plants produce flowers for reproduction. Flowers produce fruits and seeds. The seeds germinate and grow into new plants. Scientist use the similarities in the seed structures to classify flowering plants. Monocotyledons (monocots) have seeds containing one cotyledon. Dicotyledon (dicots) have seed containing two cotyledons. flowers,