Classifying Plants

Classifying Plants

There are all sorts of different plants and it is useful to know which ones are closely related and how one may have evolved from another. It is easy to see that a moss is not a close cousin to an apple tree and these plants are separated into different "divisions" or "phyla". A moss belongs in Phylum Bryophyta and an apple tree belongs in Phylum Tracheophyta. A pine tree is closer to an apple tree than a moss is, but still not very close, so these trees are put into separate "classes". A pine tree is in Class Gymnospermae and an apple tree is in Class Angiospermae. So we go on through the ranks of Order, Family and Genus until we finish up with one particular plant that we call a "species". [CH] {NR}