Day Six

Question: Which phylum of plants has the most amount of differentiation with respect to evolution?

Answer: Holy crow! A taxonomy based question! I’ve been dappling in learning about taxonomy on my own for a bit. Before we jump into answering the question, let’s cover the basics of taxonomy. Taxonomy is the scientific system in classifying organisms. There are seven groups in taxonomy: kingdom - being the most diverse, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species - being the most specific. There are even smaller groups in taxonomy too that are out there that make the main seven groups more specific.
Now a phylum is considered as a group that’s based off of some characteristics. With plants, it starts off as kingdom Plantae where all plants are grouped together. Then Plantae is broken down into twelve main groups.
These twelve groups are:
1. Bryophyta - Moss
2. Pteridophyta - Ferns
3. Coniferophyta - Gymnosperms/Conifers
4. Magnoliophyta - Angiosperms/flowering plants
5. Marchantiophyta - Liverworts
6. Anthocerotophyta - Hornworts
7. Chlorophyta - Green Algae
8. Charophyta - Freshwater Green Algae
9. Cycadophyta - Cycads/Palms
10. Ginkgophyta - Ginkgos
11. Glaucophyta - Blue Green Algae
12. Gnetophyta - Gnetums

I feel the phylum that has the most range and diversity, which has survived years after years of evolution has to be Magnoliophyta. Magnoliophyta has 300,000 different species and as science is expanding, more species are being discovered. Take wild cabbage for example, civilization has been cultivating this plant for thousands of years! Wild cabbage has also been altered to fit needs during those years which allowed to evolve into the different types of vegetables we know it as today - cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, and Kohlrabi just to name a few. Even though the evolution of this plant was aided by humans, it just shows how incredible evolution and plant adaptation is!

​Thank you so much for your question! I hope my answer was able to help you out. Please hit the link below the article to submit your plant question! Remember, questions are being answered as they are being sent in. Thank you so much for being apart of my writing challenge!

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