The Plant Kingdom (Plantae) includes all land plants: mosses, ferns, conifers, flowering plants (angiosperms), etc. -- an astounding list of more than 250,000 species. The Plant Kingdom is second in size only to the arthropoda (insects etc.).

	Photographer: EcoTravel Africa

Plants have been around for a very long time. The first plants appeared in the Ordovician, between 490 to 443 million years ago, but did not begin to resemble modern plants until the Late Silurian, about 420 million years ago. By the close of the Devonian, about 360 million years ago, there were a wide variety of shapes and sizes of plants around, including small creeping plants and tall forest trees.

The most striking, and important, feature of plants is their green colour, the result of a pigment called chlorophyll. Plants use chlorophyll to capture light energy, which fuels the manufacture of food -- sugar, starch, and other carbohydrates. Without these food sources, most life on earth would be impossible.

Trees

• Baobab - Adansonia digitata
• Marula / Maroela - Sclerocarya birrea
• Sausage Tree - Kigelia africana
• Sjambok pod - Cassia abbreviata
• Weeping Boerbean - Schotia brachypetala

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