| Themes > Science > Botanical Sciences > Classification of Plants > Spermatophyta (Seed Plants) > Angiosperms (flowering Plants) > Diversity Of Flowering Plants |
Flowering plants (angiosperms) comprise about 90 percent of the Kingdom Plantae. The total number of described species exceeds 230,000, and many tropical species are as yet unnamed. During the past 130 million years, flowering plants have colonized practically every conceivable habitat on earth, from sun-baked deserts and windswept alpine summits to fertile grasslands, freshwater marshes, dense forests and lush mountain meadows. Although a number of flowering plants live in aquatic habitats and have adapted to the saline conditions of dry lake beds and salt marshes, relatively few species live submersed in the oceans. True marine angiosperms are found throughout the oceans of the world, although most species are distributed in tropical regions. They are sometimes referred to as "seagrasses" and include about 50 species in 12 genera. The three largest flowering plant families containing the greatest number of species are the Sunflower Family (Asteraceae) with about 24,000 species, the Orchid Family (Orchidaceae) with about 20,000 species, and the Legume or Pea Family (Fabaceae) with 18,000 species. The total number of species for these three enormous families alone is approximately 62,000, roughly 25 percent of all the flowering plant species on earth. To put it another way, if you randomly lined up all the species of flowering plants on earth, every fourth one would be an orchid, a sunflower or a legume. The state of California (where WAYNE'S WORD is based) includes about 5,000 native and naturalized species, and 41 percent of these species belong to the following six plant families: Sunflower Family (Asteraceae), Grass Family (Poaceae), Legume Family (Fabaceae), Snapdragon Family (Scrophulariaceae), Mustard Family (Brassicaceae), and Sedge Family (Cyperaceae). Some of the largest herbaceous (nonwoody) genera of flowering plants include sedges (Carex--900), lupines (Lupinus--300), asters (Aster--600), onions (Allium--500), rein orchids (Habenaria--600), tree orchids (Dendrobium--900), bulb-leaf orchids (Bulbophyllum--1200), dancing-lady orchids (Oncidium--500), indigo (Indigofera--700), sorrel (Oxalis--850), geranium (Geranium--375), nightshade (Solanum--1500), penstemon (Penstemon --300), and the amazing locoweeds (Astragalus) with an estimated 2,000 species worldwide. Some of the largest woody plant genera include Acacia (800), Eucalyptus (500), holly (Ilex--440), Eugenia (600), heather (Erica--530), passion fruit (Passiflora--400), sage (Salvia--500), rattan palm (Calamus--340), Cassia (500), Croton (700), Prunus (200), Philodendron (250), Euphorbia (1600), and figs (Ficus--1000). Not only are there at least 1,000 species of figs in the world, but they all have their own "in house" species of pollinator wasp. |
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