PLANTS AND ANIMALS

                                                 Plants
 are mainly multicellular, predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, plants were treated as one of two kingdoms including all living things that were not animals, and all algae and fungi were treated as plants. However, all current definitions of Plantae exclude the fungi and some algae, as well as the prokaryotes (the archaea and bacteria). By one definition, plants form the clade Viridiplantae (Latin name for "green plants"), a group that includes the flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns and their allies, hornworts, liverworts, mosses and the green algae, but excludes the red and brown algae.
Green plants obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts that are derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria. Their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic or mycotrophic and have lost the ability to produce normal amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, although asexual reproduction is also common.
There are about 320,000 species of plants, of which the great majority, some 260–290 thousand, produce seeds.^[5] Green plants provide a substantial proportion of the world's molecular oxygen,^[6] and are the basis of most of Earth's ecosystems. Plants that produce grain, fruit and vegetables also form basic human foods and have been domesticated for millennia. Plants have many cultural and other uses, as ornaments, building materials, writing material and, in great variety, they have been the source of medicines and psychoactive drugs. The scientific study of plants is known as botany, a branch of biology

Classification Based on Growth Habits

If we consider plants, based on their height, some are too short while some are too tall to climb. Besides the height, stem thickness, delicacy also varies.

For example– Short plants have greenish, soft, and tender stems, while big and tall plants or trees have a thick, strong and woody stem which are hard to break. 

Explore more: Classification of Plants

Based on the growth habit, plants are broadly categorized into three groups:

Herbs, Shrubs and Trees

Herbs

Starting from the smallest, herb is a short-sized plant with soft, green, delicate stem without the woody tissues. They complete their life cycle within one or two seasons. Generally, they have few branches or are branch less. These can be easily uprooted from the soil. Herbs contain enough nutritional benefits including vitamins and minerals to make it a part of a healthy balanced diet. Tomato, wheat, paddy, grass are a few examples of herbs.

Explore more: Herb and their Benefits

Shrubs

Shrubs are medium-sized, woody plants taller than herbs and shorter than a tree. Their height usually ranges between 6 m-10 m or 20 ft–33 ft tall. Their features include bushy, hard and woody stems with many branches. Although stems are hard, they are flexible but not fragile. The life-span of these plants are for many years. Rose, jasmine lemon, tulsi, and henna are some of the common shrubs around us.
Explore more: Shrubs and their Uses

Trees

Trees are big and tall plants. They have very thick, woody and hard stems called the trunk. This single main stem or the trunk gives rise to many branches that bear leaves, flowers and fruits. Some trees are branch less like coconut tree; i.e., they have only one main stem which bears leaves, flowers, and fruits all by itself. The life-span of the trees are very large. i.e, for several years. Banyan, mango, neem, cashew, teak, oak are some examples of trees.

In addition to these three categories of plants, there are two more types which need some support to grow. They are specifically called climbers and creepers.

Climbers

Climbers are much more advanced than creepers. Climbers have a very thin, long and weak stem which cannot stand upright but they can use external support to grow vertically and carry their weight. These types of plants use special structures called tendrils to climb. Few climbers plants names include pea plant, grapevine, sweet gourd, money plant, jasmine, runner beans, green peas, etc.

Creepers

Creepers, as the name suggests, are plants that creep on the ground. They have very fragile, long, thin stems that can neither stand erect nor support all its weight. Examples include watermelon, strawberry, pumpkin and sweet potatoes.

Also Read: Photosynthesis Process

Learn more about Plants, its types, importance and other related topics @ BYJU’S Biology

Frequently Asked Questions

How do herbs differ from shrubs?

Herbs are a normal plant with soft, delicate stem and are perennial, which completes its life cycle in a year. Shrubs are taller than the herbs and have a hard woody stem with branches.

Briefly explain the classification of plants.

There are different varieties of plants and are mainly classified based on certain features including growth habit, presence or absence of specialized tissues, flowering and non-flowering plants, etc.

What is meant by Growth habit?

Growth habit mainly refers to the appearance, shape, height, and form of growth of a plant species. A plant’s growth habit develops from particular genetic patterns that determine growth.

State five examples of shrubs.

The most common examples of shrubs are rose, banana, marigold, china rose, and lemon.

What are the characteristics of herbs?

The characteristics of herbs are:

1. They are small plants with a soft and delicate stem.
2. They have a green, tender, soft and delicate stem.
3. They have a short lifespan, which can live only for one or two seasons.
4. They are shorter in size and they may grow between 2 to 3 meters tall.

What are climbers?

Climbers are the plants with long, week and very thin green stem, which use external support to grow and carry their weight.

Provide a few examples of climbers.

Beans, Cucumber, Grapevine, Gourd, Jasmine, and Money Plant are a few common examples of climbers.

Provide a few examples of creepers.

Pumpkin, Passionflowers and Sweet potato are a few common examples of creepers

What are creepers?

Creepers mainly refer to those plants which have a weak stem and are extended horizontally along with the soil on the ground as they cannot stand upright.

How are climbers different from creepers?

The main difference between climbers and creepers are:
Creepers spread their stem, leaves horizontally along with the soil on the ground and also bear flowers along with the fruits on the ground. The leaves of the creepers produce fibre-like roots which fix the plant to the ground and provide external support to grow further.
Climbers are plants with a tender stem which grow with the help of external support. These plants produce a twine or hook from their leaves to climb. Some plants produce special roots that serve as the holdfasts to climb around certain objects.

Animals (also referred to as metazoa) are multicellular eukaryotic organisms that form the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, during embryonic development. Over 1.5 million living animal species have been described—of which around 1 million are insects—but it has been estimated there are over 7 million animal species in total. Animals range in length from 8.5 millionths of a metre to 33.6 metres (110 ft). They have complex interactions with each other and their environments, forming intricate food webs. The kingdom Animalia includes humans, but in colloquial use, the term animal often refers only to non-human animals. The scientific study of animals is known as zoology.
Most living animal species are in the Bilateria, a clade whose members have a bilaterally symmetric body plan. The Bilateria include the protostomes—in which many groups of invertebrates are found, such as nematodes, arthropods, and molluscs—and the deuterostomes, containing both the echinoderms as well as the chordates, the latter containing the vertebrates. Life forms interpreted as early animals were present in the Ediacaran biota of the late Precambrian. Many modern animal phyla became clearly established in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, which began around 542 million years ago. 6,331 groups of genes common to all living animals have been identified; these may have arisen from a single common ancestor that lived 650 million years ago.
Historically, Aristotle divided animals into those with blood and those without. Carl Linnaeus created the first hierarchical biological classification for animals in 1758 with his Systema Naturae, which Jean-Baptiste Lamarck expanded into 14 phyla by 1809. In 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into the multicellular Metazoa (synonymous for Animalia) and the Protozoa, single-celled organisms no longer considered animals. In modern times, the biological classification of animals relies on advanced techniques, such as molecular phylogenetics, which are effective at demonstrating the evolutionary relationships between animal taxa.
Humans make use of many other animal species, such as for food (including meat, milk, and eggs), for materials (such as leather and wool), and also as pets, and for transports, as working animals. Dogs have been used in hunting, while many terrestrial and aquatic animals were hunted for sports. Non-human animals have appeared in art from the earliest times and are featured in mythology and religion.

Appaloosa/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

hem to inhabit a wide range of habitats, ranging from deserts to oceans to arctic tundra