P3 Classifying Plants

🌸Flowering or Non-Flowering

Flowering plants, such as the hibiscus and rose, bear flowers when fully grown.
Non-flowering plants, such as ferns and mosses, do not bear flowers.

💡 DID YOU KNOW? A single sunflower can have over 2,000 tiny flowers packed together! And it turns its face to follow the sun all day long — like a plant doing yoga. 🌻☀️

🌱Seed-Bearing or Spore-Bearing

Plants may reproduce by seeds or spores.
Seeds and spores can develop into a new plant, allowing the plant to ensure the continuity of its own kind.

💡 DID YOU KNOW? A coconut is a seed that can float on water for months and still grow into a new palm tree when it washes up on a beach! 🥥🏝️

📋Key Takeaway — Flowering vs Non-Flowering Plants

	🌸 Flowering Plants	🌿 Non-Flowering Plants
Reproduction	By seeds 🌱	By spores 🍂
Making Food	Both make their own food through photosynthesis ☀️🌿

🏞️Grow on Land or in Water

Plants can be classified by whether they grow on land (land plants) or grow in water (water plants).
Plants that grow in water can be further classified by whether they:

🌊 Float on water

Rest on the surface of the water

🌿 Partially-submerged

Roots underwater, leaves/flowers above water

🌾 Fully-submerged

Completely underwater

⚠️Poisonous or Non-Poisonous

Some plants have parts that are poisonous and hence harmful to humans.
When handled or consumed, these poisonous plant parts can cause itchiness, rashes, vomiting, diarrhoea, loss of speech, blindness or even death.
Other plants are grown for food and have parts that can be eaten.
Commonly eaten plant parts include the root of the carrot plant and the stem of the potato plant.

💡 DID YOU KNOW? The castor oil plant is poisonous, but humans have used it for hundreds of years to make medicine and even soap! Some poisonous plants can be useful too. 🏭

🔍Appearance of Plant Parts

Plants can also be classified by the appearance of their plant parts:

🌺Flowers

Flowers can be classified by whether they grow singly or grow in clusters.

🍎Fruits

Fruits can be classified by the number of seeds they have, their skin texture, and whether they can be eaten:

Seeds: Fruits can have one seed like the mango or many seeds like the watermelon.
Skin texture: Fruits can have smooth skin like the papaya or rough or hairy skin like the kiwi.
Edibility: Fruits like the tomato can be eaten while fruits like the pong pong cannot be eaten.

🌿Stems

Plants can be classified by whether they have strong stems or weak stems:

Strong stems: Plants with strong stems are able to hold themselves upright.
Weak stems: Plants with weak stems need to cling to other plants or objects for support or crawl along the ground.

💡 DID YOU KNOW? A banana plant is actually the world's largest herb — not a tree! Its stem is soft and squishy, so it can't hold itself upright like real trees. 🍌

🍃Leaves

Leaves can be classified by their shape, type of edges they have and vein pattern:

Shapes:

💚

Heart-shaped

🥚

Oval-shaped

🖐️

Palm-shaped

🗡️

Lance-shaped

Edges: Leaves can be jagged-edged or smooth-edged.
Veins: Leaves can have a net or parallel vein pattern.

💡 DID YOU KNOW? Some Venus flytrap leaves can snap shut in less than a second to catch insects! They're one of the fastest-moving plants on Earth. 🪤🐜

P3 Classifying Plants 🌿