MEDICAL BOTANY - A.G. Serbin - 2003

SECTION 3. SYSTEMATICS

SUPERKINGDOM EUCARYOTA. KINGDOM PLANTAE

EMBRYOPHYTES (Embryophyta), or CORMOPHYTES (Cormophyta)

PHYLUM ANGIOSPERMS, or FLOWERING PLANTS — ANGIOSPERMAE (MAGNOLIOPHYTA)

Angiosperms represent the largest (240 thousand species), most progressive, and rapidly evolving group of plants. Insect pollinators and birds played a major role in the evolution and dominance of angiosperms by acting as dispersal agents for fruits and seeds. The phylum is characterized by the following set of features:

✵ diverse life forms, predominantly herbaceous plants distinguished by high seed productivity, rapid generational turnover, and accelerated evolutionary rates;

✵ wide Morphological diversity of the sporophyte vegetative Organs;

✵ further reduction of the gametophyte, with a complete absence of sex organs such as archegonia and antheridia;

✵ presence of true vessels and companion Cells associated with sieve tubes;

✵ presence of a flower comprising a pistil with a stigma that captures pollen, and an Ovary enclosing ovules;

✵ a sexual process known as double Fertilization;

✵ seeds developing under the Protection of the pericarp.

Classification

The phylum Angiosperms is divided into two classes: Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons. Each Class possesses a distinct set of diagnostic features (Table 3.2). In A.L. Takhtajan's system (1987), the class Dicotyledones is subdivided into 8 subclasses and 325 families, whereas the class Monocotyledones comprises 3 subclasses encompassing 65 families. Below, we examine the Characteristic Features of certain families, as well as individual representatives of these families that are most widely used in medicine or other fields.

Table 3.2. Comparative characteristics of flowering plant classes

Class Dicotyledoneae

Class Monocotyledoneae

1

2

Embryo typically with two cotyledons, which upon seed germination are usually elevated above the ground

Embryo with a single cotyledon, which typically remains hypogeal upon seed germination

Seeds with or without endosperm

Seeds with endosperm

Life forms include woody and herbaceous types in great variety

Typically herbaceous plants, occasionally secondary woody forms

ROOT system taproot or mixed, less frequently fibrous

Root system fibrous, or subterranean organs represented by modified shoots

Leaves simple and compound, variable in shape, with entire or dissected blades, usually petiolate, frequently with stipules; venation pinnate or palmate

Leaves simple, mostly entire, not differentiated into petiole and blade, lacking stipules, possessing a leaf sheath; venation parallel or arcuate

Flowers 5- or 4-merous, less commonly 3-merous

Flowers typically 3- and 6-merous, occasionally 4- and 2-merous

Perianth usually double

Perianth typically simple

Axial organs possess cambium and are capable of secondary thickening

Axial organs lack cambium and are incapable of secondary thickening

Vascular bundles open, arranged in a ring within the central cylinder of the stem, with a well-defined pith

Vascular bundles closed, scattered throughout the central cylinder of the stem, pith indistinct or degraded


Last update: 07/08/2026

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