Plants are pretty amazing. They provide us with oxygen, food, fiber, and medicine. They grow in all regions of the world. Each species has leaves, stems, flowers, roots, fruit and seeds adapted to its habitat. These specialized plant parts ensure they can acquire their basic needs, protect themselves against predators, and reproduce.

In future posts, we will explore the function, specialized features, and agricultural importance of each of the basic parts of plants – roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit. But before I dive into these topics, we need to take a step back and review some terminology – particularly in regard to how plants are classified.

Do you remember learning about Carl Linnaeus in high school biology? Linneaus is known as the father of taxonomy – a system for organizing the natural world. He brought order and structure into the previously chaotic realm of naming plants and animals. His system was based on morphology, a fancy word for grouping organisms based on their physical form and structure.

Today’s taxonomic system includes three domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya. The Eukarya domain is divided into four kingdoms: Animalia (animals), Plantae (plants), Protista (slime molds, algae, and protozoans), and Fungi. Each kingdom is further divided into phyla (also called divisions), classes, orders, families, genera, and species. My biology teacher taught us to remember the order of classification with this mnemonic device: Did King Phillip Come Over For Good Soup?

Using corn as an example, the chart above illustrates how groups become smaller as you move down classification levels from domain to species. Two plants within the same group have more in common and are more closely related than they are to plants in another group. Just like humans are more closely related to gorillas and chimpanzees than other mammals.

Taxonomic classification is not just useful for plant identification. Understanding the common characteristics of plants within a group helps plant breeders, chemists, and others improve agricultural practices. For example, herbicides have been developed to kill broad-leaf weeds (dicots), without harming monocot crops like corn, wheat, and rice.

Since plants within the same family have similar roots, reproductive structures, or other characteristics, they tend to have similar growth characteristics, nutritional needs, and pests. Knowing this, farmers often rotate crops from different plant families to interrupt pest life cycles and reduce yield loss.

If this piqued your interest, be sure to check out our other Science 101 posts and subscribe so you don’t miss future posts.

– Cindy