What defines a plant as a plant?
Plants are diverse organisms, differing in size and shape and ranging from single cells such as algae to complex organisms such as trees. Through photosynthesis, plants provide the planet with food, oxygen, and energy. Plants demonstrate the seven life processes through photosynthesis, growth, reproduction, sensitivity, excretion, nutrition, and movement. Plants carry out photosynthesis, which is a process that converts light energy, usually from the sun, into chemical energy that can be later released to fuel the plant’s activities.
What was the first plant on Earth?
It has generally been assumed that the earliest land plants were liverwort-like and therefore much research effort has been poured into studying this group and developing it as a model for the ancestral land plant. Non-vascular plants, which include mosses and liverworts, were the first-ever land plants. They do not have much of an internal support system, but have slightly simpler material for the same tasks.