Question: How come all plants are different?

Hannah Blyth answered on 18 Mar 2020:

Great question Jabari! For similar reasons to why there are so many different kinds of animals! Evolution! The evolution of plants has resulted in increasing levels of complexity, from simple algal mats, through to things like mosses and liverworts, and then ferns to some of the complex plants and trees that dominate today. Each has its own preferred habitat and conditions, and many different lifestyles!

I am so glad you asked this question because it is so easy for us to forget that wildlife includes plants, and “plant blindness” is quite an issue! A report made by the scientists working at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said there are about 391,000 species of vascular plants (meaning they have specialised vascular tissue to transport water) currently known to science, of which about 369,000 species are flowering plants. There are many more undescribed and unknown species of plants!

This is a link to a blog post written by Dr Carly Cowell in Kew’s Conservation team about plant blindness! https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/plant-blindness-conservation-implications