To live on land, plants had to adapt. They started with a cuticle, and then added stomata to protect plants from water and gas loss. As millions of years passed, they evolved other adaptations, like spores, vascular tissue, and seeds. These adaptations help scientists differentiate between the 12 phyla of the plant kingdom. Nonvascular plants, vascular seedless plants, nonflowering plants, and flowering plants are the four main divisions of the plant kingdom, and each of the 12 phyla falls under these divisions. The plants of each division are unique in the way they reproduce and adjust to terrestrial life.

When you have completed this lesson, you should be able to:

describe adaptations of land plants
identify vascular and nonvascular plants
differentiate between seeded plants
describe the two groups of flowering plants
discuss the importance of plants to agriculture and modern medicine

For this assessment, you will identify plant examples for each of the four divisions of the plant kingdom and place a picture of each example in a diagram of your creation. Along with each picture, you will include a description of the plant you picked, the reason it fits under the chosen division, and a list of its adaptations for terrestrial life.