Lesson 9 of 12 · 6 min
Kingdom Plantae and Kingdom Animalia
NCERT §2.4–2.5
On the pond's edge the club finds a bladderwort catching tiny insects and an orange Cuscuta vine wrapped around a hedge with no leaves of its own. Both are plants. How can a plant feed on something else?
The lesson in notes
In short
Plantae includes all eukaryotic organisms with chlorophyll, commonly called plants. A few are partly heterotrophic: insectivorous plants such as bladderwort and Venus fly trap, and the parasite Cuscuta.
Plant cells are eukaryotic, with prominent chloroplasts and a cell wall made mainly of cellulose. Plantae includes algae, bryophytes, pteridophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms.
A plant life cycle has two phases that alternate, the diploid sporophyte and the haploid gametophyte. This is alternation of generations; how long each phase lasts, and whether it is free-living or dependent, varies between plant groups.
Animalia contains heterotrophic, multicellular eukaryotes whose cells have no cell walls. They depend directly or indirectly on plants for food.
Animals digest food in an internal cavity, store reserves as glycogen or fat, and feed holozoically, by ingesting food.
Animals follow a definite growth pattern into adults of definite shape and size; higher forms have elaborate sensory and neuromotor systems, and most can move from place to place.
Animals reproduce sexually by the mating (copulation) of a male and a female, and the embryo then develops.