Amazing facts about six kingdom system of classification

According to Royal Botanic Garden's recent report there are about 391,000 species of vascular plants  known to science, of which about  94% are flowering plants. Therefore, angiosperms / flowering plants are the dominant flora of modern age. Here in this article we shall discuss some amazing facts about plants. Not only plants we shall also cover all those six kingdoms which are mentioned in Carl Woese’s system of classification that is six kingdom system of classification.

The most recent and most accepted system of classification is Six kingdom system of classification which was proposed by Carl Richard Woese who was an American microbiologist. According to his six kingdom system classification, six kingdoms are Archaebacteria, Eubacteria, Protista, Fungi, plantae and animalia.

Facts about kingdom Monera (Archaebacteria+Eubacteria) 

1 Kingdom monera include most anicient, most simplest, most abundant and most smallest micro-organisms.

2 The organisms which come under the kingdom monera were the first inhabitants of the Earth and they still continue to flourish.

3 All the organisms that constitute the kingdom monera are bacteria. 

4 Bacteria can survive almost everywhere from soil to hot springs, from snow, deserts to deep oceans where very few organisms can survive and flourish.

5 Monerans do not possess control centre of the cell (nucleus), nucleolus, nuclear membrane, chromatin and histone proteins.

6 Instead of double membrane bound nucleus there is incipient nucleus or nucleoid composed of DNA,RNA and non histone proteins.

7 The cell wall of monerans is composed of peptidoglycan (amino acids+sugar), exceptions are archaebacteria and Mycoplasma. 

Facts about kingdom protista

1 Protists are unicellular eukaryotes means they have cell membrane, double membrane bound nucleus, mitochondria and chloroplast. They also contain nucleolus inside the nucleus.

2 The boundries of protists are not well defined means they form connecting link between other plants and animals.

3 In protists both modes of reproduction are found that are sexual and asexual.

4 The examples of protists are Protozoans, Euglenoids, Dinoflagellates and Chrysophytes. 

5 Chrysophytes are both marine and fresh water, they are microscopic, float passively and mostly photosynthetic.

6 Dinoflagellates are both marine and fresh water mostly marine with two flagella one transverse and the other longitudinal.

7 Dinofagellates like Gonyaulax and Gymnodinum are responsible for the formation of red tides in sea.

Facts about kingdom Fungi

1 Kingdom fungi include Eukaryotic, hetrotrophic, achlorophyllous, thalloid and spore producing organisms.

2 Members of kingdom fungi are found almost everywhere even in air also but their abundancy can be seen in moist and warm areas,

3 There is also a single celled fungi called yeast which is used in making beer and bread.

4 There is famous disease in Triticum aestivum which is caused by Puccinia fungi.

Facts about viruses

1 Virus means venom or poison producing lifeless entity and the term was first coined by  French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur.

2 These lifeless entities and obligatory parasites form the connecting link between non-living and living.

3 The virus which was crystallised for the first time was TMV (Tobacco mosaic virus) and crystallised by W.M stanely. Most of the crystals were proteins.

4 Envelope, capsid and nucleoid are the  three structural components of a virus. Envelope is outer covering, capsid is protective protein coat and nucleoid is genetic material. Here in case of viruses there will be only one thing either DNA or RNA but not both. 

Plant kingdom facts 

Facts about algae

1 Most of the algae are equatic, non embryophytic, non vascular, cryptogamic thallophytes.

2 Some kelp algae like macrocysts and laminaria may reach upto 100 metres.

3 The common name of  algae which come under phaeophyceae is Brown algae or Kelp or gaint of algal world.

4 Approximately 70% species of the algae are used as food.

5 Spirullina and chlorella are single celled algae which are rich in protein and used by astronauts. 

The most important products that are produced by red algae are Agar and Carrageen. Agar is obtained from Gelidium and gracilaria and is used to grow microbes, in preparation of icecreams and jellies. Carrageen is used in making shampoos.

Facts about bryophytes

1 Bryophytes especially mosses prevents washing away of the soil because their rhizoids have tight grip on soil particles.

2 Bryophytes like sphagnam are important link in plant succession because they initiate the formation of soil on bare rocks. 

3 Some bryophytes like sphagnam have great capacity of water retention. This water retaning capacity helps farmers and gardeners to keep their seeds and plants moist during propagation and transportation.

4 Bryophytes like sphagnum are used to overcome the soil alkalinity because they grow where the potential of hydrogen remains low.

5 The first organisms to clonise rocks are bryophytes. 

Facts about Gymnosperms

1 Seeds of some gymnosperms are edible for example, seeds of Pinus gerardina are eaten after frying.

2 Gymnosperms provide light and soft wood which is used in the preparation of matchsticks, railway sleepers.

3 Gymnosperms have the major contribution in paper production.

4 The drug Ephedrine which is used in asthma and respiratory alinments is obtained from a gymnosperm tree called Ephedra. 

5 The anticancer drug Taxol is also obtained from a gymnosperm tree called Taxus. 

6 The largest gymnosperm is Zamia and the smallest is Sequoia. 

7 In gymnosperms Metasequoia, cyas and Ginkgo are living fossils. 

Facts about Angiosperms 

1 Our major source of food is Angiosperms, They produce cereals like maize, rice, wheat fruits like mango, apple, fig, apricots etc vegetables like potato, brinjal, tomato, cauliflower etc 

2 Majority of the edible oil is produced by the Angiosperms like mustard, coconut, groundnut and sunflower oil. 

3 The common beverages coffee and coca are also obtained from angiosperm. 

4 In Angiosperms medicinal plants are also present e.g Belladonna, Cinchona, Ashwagandha.

5 Many Angiosperms like sandalwood, Oak, Sheesham etc produce valuable hard wood which is used as timber. 

On this Earth most of the plants are angiosperms some are increasing the beauty of this planet like flowers,  some are feeding our empty stomachs like wheat, rice, maize. some are providing us the life saving drugs like Quinine. Some are busy in the production of highly nutritious fruits and vegetables.