The Plant Kingdom includes most of the things you might think: mosses, trees, grass, and a lot of other green things that don't move around much. One thing that they all have in common is that they can make their own food from sunlight by the process known as photosynthesis. Along with animals, fungi, and protists, plants are eukaryotes, so their cells have a nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. They've also got a wall around each cell, made of stuff called cellulose.

Botanists, people who study plants, often use the word "division" instead of "phylum" to describe the different groups in this kingdom, but it's pretty much the same thing. Maybe you've noticed that there's no division here for the various types of seaweed, or algae— that's because those organisms are now considered to be plant-like protists, members of Kingdom Protista.

Major Divisions (groups)	Description	Masks	Approx. # of species
Anthocerotophyta	These are the hornworts, which grow in damp climates around the world. Most of them look like flattened leaves pressed against the ground. You can tell them by their long "horns," which are actually sporophytes, organs which eventually break open and produce spores which the plants use to reproduce.		100
Ginkgophyta	The ginko tree, the only species in this division on Earth today, offers us a peek at a type of plant that we know mostly from fossils. Every other species of ginkgophyta has been extinct for about 2 million years!		1
Anthophyta	Another name for this division is Magnoliophyta, and it includes most land plants. These are the "flowering plants" or "angiosperms," which, as you might have guessed, are the ones with flowers. Flowers produce pollen, which can fertilize other flowers to produce fruit filled with seeds to grow new plants from. Pollen moves from plant to plant in the wind, or with the help of a pollinator like the honeybee. Some flowering plants, such as dandelions, can even fertilize themselves!		42,000
Bryophyta	We've all seen the members of this division, the mosses, growing in damp shady places. If you look closely at moss at certain times of the year, you'll see little capsules sticking out on narrow stalks. Those capsules will eventually break open, releasing the spores which moss uses to reproduce itself.		10,000
Pterophyta	These are the ferns, which you've probably seen before. According to legends in Russia and Ukraine, if you find a fern flower you'll be showered with riches and luck for the rest of your life. The only problem is, since ferns aren't flowering plants, they reproduce using spores, and don't have flowers!		20,000
Marchantiophyta	The "liverworts" in this division look a bit like fleshy moss. They tend to lie close to the ground, and, like moss, they reproduce using spores. Their name comes from the fact that they were traditionally used in Europe to treat liver diseases, possibly because some kinds were shaped a bit like a human liver.		7,000
Pinophyta	These are the conifers— things like pine trees, spruces, and cedars, which have cones instead of flowers. In fact, in Latin, "conifer" means "cone-bearing." There are relatively few species, but they are often well-adapted to living in places where other trees can't. That means you'll often see them growing in very sandy, dry, or cold places. Instead of leaves, they have needles or scales.		700
Gnetophyta	There are three main families of these seed-bearing plants, which grow in a variety of habitats from deserts to tropical rainforests.		70
Lycopodiophyta	These plants grow around the world— you may have noticed them on the forest floor. They're sometimes called "clubmosses," "spikemosses," or "quillworts," and they often resemble tiny pine trees or spiky mosses. Today's lycopods are pretty small, but we know from fossils that extinct species called "scale trees" reached heights of almost 40 metres!		1,200
Cycadophyta	The cycads are seed-bearing plants with leaves that look a bit like palm fronds, and cones like giant versions of the ones on pine trees. Before flowering plants took over, they were one of the most successful plants there was— they were all over the place in the days of the dinosaurs!		300