Plants are multicellular, photosynthetic organisms, adapted primarily for life on land. With a combination of both, underground and aboveground structures, plants have the ability to absorb water and mineral nutrients from soil while food production is also occurring through the process of photosynthesis. Scientists assume that plants where the cause of evolution, adapting from aquatic green algae 500 million years ago. Many essential adaptations would have occurred to allow for plants to transition from water to land based, this notion is reflected heavily within the characteristics of a plant. It is assumed that this transition was propelled by a plants requirement to become more resourceful in obtaining …show more content…
Plants play an essential role within the earth’s eco-system, being primary producers of chemical energy, to gain a greater knowledge on how plants are essential to all living things, cellular structure must first be understood.
Cellular Structure of a Plant:
The cellular structure of a plant is instrumental in shaping the overall construction of a plant and the way in which life functions are performed. The cells found within a plant are known as Eukaryotic Cells, as they have a kernel of nucleus, separately enclosed by a membrane. This separated kernel of nucleus is what differs prokaryotic from eukaryotic cell structure. Eukaryotic cells also contain organelles, suspended in cytoplasm. These organelles allow plants to produce their own food, something that lacks within an animal cell. Other features that divide plant from animal cells, is its inclusion of both a cell membrane and a rigid cell wall, surrounding the plasma membrane. This prevents mobility, therefore, explaining why plants can only drift on the very surface of the water or are attached to substratum. As a result of a lack of mobility, kingdom plantae have the …show more content…
This process is accomplished through one of two ways, either asexually or sexually. Asexual reproduction involves only one single organism, meaning the offspring is genetically identical to the parent. Sexual reproduction involves the union of specialized sex cells, gametes, derived from two different individuals of different gender, but from the same species. The offspring of sexual reproduction contain genetic material from both genetic parents, producing new characteristics. This may be of significance in accordance with survival, not only for the individual but for the species at whole, situated in unfavorable conditions. Plants have a life cycle whereby the alteration of generation is utilized, this implies that an asexually reproducing generation is followed by a sexually reproducing generation. The cells within the two altering generations differ in the number of chromosomes they contain. The asexual phase is labelled diploid because its cells contain two of each type of chromosome, a diploid plant is referred to as sporophyte because it reproduces through producing spores. The sexual phase is termed haploid because its cells contain only one of each type of chromosome, the haploid spores are formed through reduction division, the process of cell division called