Have you ever wanted to know the difference between plants and trees? On social media and even on websites I have often seen descriptions of these things that say something like: know everything about plants, trees and flowers. In other words, they talk about these plant beings as if they did not have a common origin. And of course, we want to ask you here if you think they really do, or if you think they don't.
Don't worry if you don't know the answer or if you have doubts. It's normal. There are many, many people who are not clear on this matter, and it is logical considering that at first glance it is very easy to differentiate a tree from a lettuce, for example, or a petunia from a palm tree. Their physical characteristics are very, very different. But Let's see if it is a mistake to differentiate them so much as to think that they have different origins..
Are trees a type of plant?
The short answer is yes. But I don't want to stop there. I want you to know that trees, succulents, flowers, climbers, etc., belong to the Plantae kingdom, that is, to the kingdom of plants since They have a common primitive origin, which are algae. And the latter come from the result of a symbiotic relationship that occurred between a cyanobacteria and a protozoan that first occurred more than 2100 billion years ago.
Image - Wikimedia / Maulucioni
In the image above you can see how plants evolved from the symbiotic relationship I just mentioned. The capacity for evolution, or in other words, adaptation, of plants (and also animals, although this is not the place to talk about them) is surprising.
We started with cyanobacteria and ended up with the modern plants we know today. Gymnosperms (conifers, Ginkgo, cycads) emerged about 400 million years ago, and only 150 million years later (more or less) did flowering plants. or angiosperms. Within this last classification, we find palm trees, trees, cacti, daffodils and a long etcetera.
And, if we wanted, we could complicate things even more, because Within the angiosperms, we have monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants., which are mainly differentiated by:
- Monocotyledons: are plants that, when germinating, have only one cotyledon or primitive leaf. They also lack a true stem and cambium. Examples: palm trees, banana trees, strelitzias, herbs.
- Dicotyledons: These plants have two cotyledons or primitive leaves when they germinate. Some have cambium and therefore produce wood. Examples: flowering trees, climbing plants, succulents (cacti and succulents), bulbous plants (tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, etc.).
Are cacti succulent plants?
Image - Wikimedia / Peter A. Mansfeld
Another fairly common question is whether cacti are succulent plants. And the answer is, again, yes.. The succulent plants, by definition, are all those plants that, when adapting to an arid or semi-arid environment, store water in some part of their body, either their leaves or their body/stem. Thus, what the cacti did was transform their green leaves into thorns, and store water in their body and, depending on the species, also in their roots.
The succulents (or what are often called succulents, which is not entirely correct since, as we have just said, cacti are also succulents), As they evolved, they transformed their leaves and body into water stores.. In this way, they can withstand more or less long periods of drought.
But be careful: one must avoid confusing the term 'drought period' with 'period in which they receive absolutely no water'. Succulents, whether cacti or succulents, are able to withstand periods without rain because they stay hydrated thanks to ambient humidity., to dew. This is why they have problems adapting to a place where the ambient humidity (or air humidity) is very low, because in these places they cannot hydrate at all unless they are sprayed with water and watered whenever they need it.
However, plants, regardless of whether they are trees, cacti or grasses, are unique. They have survived the five mass extinctions that the planet has suffered, and they will most likely survive the one we are experiencing now.