Flowering plant
Flowering plants dominate land habitats and sustain human agriculture.
Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms, are plants that bear flowers and fruits, forming the clade Angiospermae. The term angiosperm derives from Greek words meaning 'container, vessel' and 'seed,' referring to seeds enclosed within a fruit. Agriculture is almost entirely dependent on angiosperms, as they supply nearly all plant-based food and livestock feed, including rice, maize, and wheat, which provide half of the world's staple calorie intake. They also provide wood, paper, cotton, and ingredients for drinks, sugar, traditional medicine, and modern pharmaceuticals, and are commonly grown for decorative purposes.
- field
- Botany
- known_for
- Bearing flowers and fruits; dominant land plant group; foundation of agriculture
- largest_species
- Eucalyptus gum trees and Shorea faguetiana, up to ~100 m tall
- smallest_species
- Wolffia duckweeds, less than 2 mm across
Lore & Background
Angiosperms are terrestrial vascular plants with roots, stems, leaves, and seeds, distinguished from gymnosperms by having flowers, xylem with vessel elements, endosperm within seeds, and fruits that envelop the seeds. In the Cretaceous, angiosperms diversified explosively, becoming the dominant plant group across the planet. The largest angiosperms are Eucalyptus gum trees of Australia and Shorea faguetiana of Southeast Asia, reaching almost 100 meters in height; the smallest are Wolffia duckweeds, less than 2 millimeters across.
Reader's Guide
Nearly all species belong to the eudicot (75%), monocot (23%), and magnoliid (2%) clades. They occupy a wide range of habitats on land, in fresh water, and in the sea, dominating every habitat except frigid moss-lichen tundra and coniferous forest. Their evolutionary success is largely attributed to coevolutionary relationships with animal pollinators such as insects, birds, and bats, leading to specialized pollination syndromes. Agriculture depends almost entirely on angiosperms, with a small number of families supplying nearly all plant-based food and livestock feed. Many flowering plants are threatened by habitat destruction and climate change.
Did You Know?
- The term 'angiosperm' was coined by Paul Hermann in 1690, originally meaning plants with seeds enclosed in capsules.
- Some 99% of flowering plants are photosynthetic autotrophs; the remainder are parasitic on fungi or other plants.
- Seagrasses in the Alismatales grow in marine environments, spreading with rhizomes through mud in sheltered coastal waters.
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