Meaning & use
Plantae
Last updated
Meaning
proper nounproperbiologytechnical
The biological kingdom that contains all plants, including mosses, ferns, conifers and flowering plants.
Grammar: A name, so no article: Plantae includes ferns.
Patterns
- belong to Plantae
- the kingdom Plantae
Oak trees and ferns both belong to Plantae.
In the classic system, living things are sorted into kingdoms such as Animalia and Plantae.
The kingdom Plantae is defined by organisms that make food using photosynthesis.
Common combinations
- kingdom Plantae
- Roses belong to the kingdom Plantae.
- belong to Plantae
- Mosses belong to Plantae even though they have no flowers.
- Plantae and Animalia
- Students compared the cell walls of Plantae and Animalia.
- members of Plantae
- All members of Plantae have cells with cellulose walls.
Synonyms and how they differ
- plant kingdom
- Plant kingdom is the everyday English phrase, while Plantae is the formal scientific name used in classification.
- flora
- Flora means all the plants of a place or time, whereas Plantae is the whole biological group.
- vegetation
- Vegetation means plants growing in an area, not the scientific category.
Opposites
Word family
- plant noun
- a living thing from the kingdom Plantae
- plantation noun
- a large farm growing one crop
- planted adjective
- put in the ground to grow
Commonly confused: Plantae or Animalia? Plantae or Fungi?
Plantae vs Animalia
Animalia is the kingdom of animals, not plants.
Plantae vs Fungi
Fungi is a separate kingdom containing mushrooms and molds, which are not plants.
Practice
In biology, an oak tree belongs to the kingdom ___.
Choose one answer.
Plantae is the plant kingdom, which includes trees. Fungi is tempting because mushrooms grow in forests, but fungi are not plants.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “Plantae”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.