What are the 5 characteristics of a plant

The word ‘plant’ encompasses a wide range of living organisms, all of which belong to the kingdom Plantae and share a range of characteristics.

In this article, we examine the key characteristics of land plants – bryophytes, lycophytes, ferns and seed plants.

Key characteristics

Land plants are multicellular organisms that can be distinguished from other living things by a number of characteristics:

• They make their own food. Plants are photosynthetic and contain a green pigment called chlorophyll, which enables plants to convert energy from the sun into food. Plants store their food as starch.
• Most plants are rooted to one place – some plants can orientate leaves towards the sun and some respond to touch.
• Plant cell walls are rigid as they’re made of cellulose.
• The life cycle of plants includes both a sporophyte and a gametophyte generation. The two generations alternate, each giving rise to the other. This is called ‘alternation of generations'.

Botanists use these and other characteristics to further define plants into groups.

Vascular or non-vascular plants

Plants can be either vascular or non-vascular.

Vascular tissues, called xylem and phloem, link all parts of the plant and transport water, nutrients and manufactured food around. These tissues also form part of the structural support for plants.

Plants that have vascular tissues are vascular plants and are called tracheophytes. Ferns are examples of vascular plants. The xylem allows the movement of water and nutrients from the roots to the rest of the plant while the phloem transports nutrients and sugars around the plant. Vascular tissue allows the plants to grow taller as there is an efficient means of connecting nutrients and water to all parts of the plant. Mature xylem tissue forms the rings you see when a tree is cut down.

Plants that don’t have xylem and phloem are non-vascular plants. Mosses are examples of non-vascular plants. These plants have no vascular tissues to transport water and nutrients. They don’t have true leaves, roots or stems. Photosynthetic products are transported by osmosis. These plants must live near water and cannot grow tall.

Seeded or seedless vascular plants

Vascular plants can be further classified based on whether they produce seeds or not. They can be either seeded vascular plants or non-seeded vascular plants.

Seeded vascular plants reproduce by seeds. These are the gymnosperms and angiosperms. Gymnosperms (conifers, ginkos and cycads) produce seeds in cones. There are more than 730 species in this group. Angiosperms (monocotyledons and dicotyledons) produce seeds from flowers. This is the largest group of plants, having more than 260,000 species.

Seedless vascular plants reproduce by spores. These have clearly defined sporophyte and gametophyte generations and have roots, stems and leaves. This group consists of over 13,000 species. Ferns are an example of seedless vascular plants.

Botanists use these and other characteristics to further define plants into groups.

Related content

Wnat to find out more about ferns? This article introdudces our range of reosurces on New Zealand's iconic plant.

Useful link

Visit NZ Plant Conservation Network's website to learn more about native and exotic plants in New Zealand. The site has images and extensive information on individual plant species. It also has links to other databases including traditional Māori uses.

Listen to Episode 9: Non-vasc plants are all around podcast from the Department of Conservation to find out more about non-vascular plants.

Find out about the plant life cycle on Biology Online and identify the gametophyte and the sporophyte generations in the plant life cyle.

Terrestrial plants share a few defining characteristics, structural as well as functional. Perhaps the most basic shared feature of most plants is their division into shoots and roots. The separation between these two portions of the plant came about during the evolutionary move from an aqueous environment to a terrestrial one, and each part is essential in its own way to the plants' ability to survive on land.

The root, defined as the portion of a plant beneath the soil, brings in essential water and minerals from the soil. It also anchors the plant to the substrate, providing stability.

The shoot includes all aerial plant structures such as stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits. The shoot gathers the carbon dioxide and light energy necessary for photosynthesis, provides surfaces for gas exchange, and contains the plant's reproductive organs. Each of these parts, the root and the shoot, is dependent on the other, for roots cannot perform photosynthesis and shoots cannot take in water and inorganic nutrients.

Prevention of Water Loss

Plants share other structural qualities as well, most of which stem from their adaptation to terrestrial conditions. All plants have reproductive structures that prevent desiccation (drying out) of the gametes. These sex organs, called antheridia (male) and archegonia (female), are themselves covered by a layer of jacket cells that help to retain moisture.

In addition to the protection given to the sex organs, the plant surfaces exposed to air are covered in a waxy layer, called a cuticle, that guards against water loss. Gas exchange in plants is limited to pores in the leaf epidermis called stomata, which can open and close to prevent excessive evaporation of water into the environment.

Autotrophism

Most plants are autotrophs, organisms that synthesize all their own organic nutrients and do not rely on other organisms for food. The reason that plants are autotrophic is that they carry out photosynthesis in their leaves. In the process of photosynthesis, the plant converts water, carbon dioxide, and light energy into oxygen, sugars, and more water. The oxygen is released into the surrounding air through the stomata, and the sugars (organic nutrients) are transported throughout the plant body to areas of growth and storage.

Alternation of Generations

Finally, plants undergo a life cycle that takes them through both haploid and diploid generations. The multicellular diploid plant structure is called the sporophyte, which produces spores through meiotic division. The multicellular haploid plant structure is called the gametophyte, which is formed from the spore and give rise to the haploid gametes. The fluctuation between these diploid and haploid stages that occurs in plants is called the alternation of generations. For further discussion, see Life Cycle, Alternation of Generations .

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