What plants are there? What are the groups of cultivated plants?

Nature is very diverse, there are millions of species of all kinds of organisms that live in different parts of the earth. According to the taxonomy, they are all divided into two empires: noncellular and cellular. The first are viruses only, and the second group, in turn, unites two domains: prokaryotes (organisms whose cells do not contain nuclei, namely, archea and bacteria), as well as eukaryotes (the nucleus is present). Habitual animals and flowers belong to the second species. Eukaryotes are divided into five kingdoms: chromites, protists, animals, fungi and plants. It is about the latter that will be discussed in this article.

The role of plants

Without them it is impossible to imagine life on the planet. Plants perform the most important function - photosynthesis, in which oxygen is released. It is thanks to these organisms that the atmosphere of the Earth has become as we know it now - with a high oxygen content and an ozone ball that protects from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation.

They also serve as an important source of organic substances. Plants can be said to "feed" the entire planet, because in any food chain they are the first link.

Scientific classification

Everyone is interested in knowing what plants are, so let's start by considering their scientific classification.

All of them are divided into two large groups: higher and lower. The last include algae (four divisions: red, brown, blue and blue-green). Higher plants include six divisions: plaiceous, horsetail, mossy, fern-like, gymnosperms and angiosperms (flowering). Classification of plants is as follows: department - class - order - family - genus - species.

History of the study of plants

What plants can be, from ancient times, interested many people - both scientists and just inquisitive personalities.

To be called the "father of botany" is rightly deserved by the ancient Greek scholar Theophrastus, who lived in 370-285. BC. E. He was one of the first who began to explore the topic of what plants are. He divided them into different groups in appearance, flowering period, etc.

Also, a large-scale study related to plants was conducted by the ancient Roman scientist Dioscorides. He lived in the first century BC. E. He owns a work in which the properties of about six hundred medicinal plants are described.

The scientist who created the first classification of all living organisms was Carl Linnaeus. His life lasted from 1708 to 1778. In his work "Systems of Nature" there are also materials about what plants are. He systematized the flowers by the number of stamens in them.

Also outstanding researcher who devoted his works to the study of plants, was Augustin Piram Deandol (1778-1841). He owns the work "The harbinger of the natural system of the vegetable kingdom", which describes about 60 thousand different species.

Adolphe Heinrich Gustav Engler (1844-1930) also made a great contribution to science, he was engaged in improving the classification of plants. He owns such works as "The Natural System of Plant Families", "Vegetable Kingdom", "The Program of Flowering Plant Families", which were created jointly with other botanists. They detail what groups of plants there are. In addition to classification, Engler also engaged in phytogeography. His well-known works in this branch are "Vegetation of the Earth" in fifteen volumes and "The World of Plants of East Africa and the Near Regions".

More about different classes of plants

Each department of plants is divided into classes. Plain-shaped have only one of the same name. The horsetail class includes horsetail. Bryophytes are divided into sphagnum, leaf-stalk, andreev, polytrichovye, tetraphic, and takiakievye mosses. The department of fern-like includes the same class, as well as salvinium and psilotoid. Gymnosperms combine ginkgo-shaped, sagovnikovye, yintovidnye and coniferous or pine.

Classes of flowering plants: dicots and monocots. This includes most of the habitual representatives of the flora. The first class includes legumes, rosaceous, birch, walnut, pumpkin, willow, umbrella, and many other families. The second - lily, orchid, cereal, banana, onion, iris, palm and others.

Classification of plants according to the structure of their vegetative parts

Previously, according to this principle, three groups were distinguished: grasses, bushes and trees. Now it is common to divide plants into seven life forms. This herbs, succulents (with very fleshy stems, which contain a large amount of water, this includes cacti, aloe, calanchoe, agave and others), lianas, shrubs, half-shrubs, trees.

Other ways of classifying plants

They can also be divided into cultural, wild-growing and weeds. The first - those plants that are grown by man for specific purposes, they can also be systematized. The well-known researcher N.I. Vavilov wrote about what groups of cultivated plants there are. This topic is interesting to many others. Cultivated plants can be divided into thirteen groups. They will be discussed below.

So, what groups of cultivated plants are there?

• Inulphoned. Plants that contain a polysaccharide called "inulin." This substance is used in medicine, and is also used as a sugar substitute for diabetics. This group includes dahlias, chicory, Jerusalem artichoke.
• Fatty oil. These are plants used to produce various oils. This includes sunflower, sesame, rape, safflower, etc.
• Nutritional: juicy fruit, wood hard-fruit and juicy-seed. This group combines pears, apples, plums, apricots, grapes, currants, hazel, cherries, palms, etc.
• Protein. Plants with high protein content in fruits. These are soybeans, peas, beans, lupins, other beans.
• Starch-bearing. First of all, these are potatoes, corn, oats, wheat, buckwheat, rice, millet, rye, sorghum, yams, sweet potato.
• Fibrous. Plants that are used for the production of yarns. They are cotton, hemp, flax, jute.
• Sugar bearing. This group includes only reed and beets.
• Vegetables. This is a tomato, cucumber, pumpkin, eggplant, pepper, cabbage, carrots, radish, celery, parsley, garlic, onion, eggplant and much more.
• Stimulant and narcotic. This is tea, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, poppy and more.
• Fodder. This includes clover, turnip, turnip, rutabaga, alfalfa.
• Rubber-bearing. This group includes hevea, wormwood, dandelion, spurge.
• Wood technical and medicinal. This includes eucalyptus, cinchona, bamboo.
• Decorative. This group includes ficuses, roses, maples, some kinds of ferns and palms, and here you can also include houseplants.

About what kind of cultural plants are, you can learn more from the book Zhukovsky PM "Cultural plants and their relatives", written in 1964.