Spain
Spain the Kingdom of Spain, is a country located in Europe. Its continental European territory is situated on the Iberian Peninsula, its territory includes two archipelagoes: the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The African enclaves of Ceuta, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera make Spain the only European country to have a physical border with an African country. Several small islands in the Alboran Sea are part of Spanish territory; the country's mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar. With an area of 505,990 km2, Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe, the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union, the fourth largest country in the European continent. By population, Spain is the fifth in the European Union. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago. Iberian cultures along with ancient Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian settlements developed on the peninsula until it came under Roman rule around 200 BCE, after which the region was named Hispania, based on the earlier Phoenician name Spn or Spania.
At the end of the Western Roman Empire the Germanic tribal confederations migrated from Central Europe, invaded the Iberian peninsula and established independent realms in its western provinces, including the Suebi and Vandals. The Visigoths would forcibly integrate all remaining independent territories in the peninsula, including Byzantine provinces, into the Kingdom of Toledo, which more or less unified politically and all the former Roman provinces or successor kingdoms of what was documented as Hispania. In the early eighth century the Visigothic Kingdom fell to the Moors of the Umayyad Islamic Caliphate, who arrived to rule most of the peninsula in the year 726, leaving only a handful of small Christian realms in the north and lasting up to seven centuries in the Kingdom of Granada; this led to many wars during a long reconquering period across the Iberian Peninsula, which led to the creation of the Kingdom of Leon, Kingdom of Castile, Kingdom of Aragon and Kingdom of Navarre as the main Christian kingdoms to face the invasion.
Following the Moorish conquest, Europeans began a gradual process of retaking the region known as the Reconquista, which by the late 15th century culminated in the emergence of Spain as a unified country under the Catholic Monarchs. Until Aragon had been an independent kingdom, which had expanded toward the eastern Mediterranean, incorporating Sicily and Naples, had competed with Genoa and Venice. In the early modern period, Spain became the world's first global empire and the most powerful country in the world, leaving a large cultural and linguistic legacy that includes more than 570 million Hispanophones, making Spanish the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese. During the Golden Age there were many advancements in the arts, with world-famous painters such as Diego Velázquez; the most famous Spanish literary work, Don Quixote, was published during the Golden Age. Spain hosts the world's third-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Spain is a secular parliamentary democracy and a parliamentary monarchy, with King Felipe VI as head of state.
It is a major developed country and a high income country, with the world's fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP and sixteenth largest by purchasing power parity. It is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, the Eurozone, the Council of Europe, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the Union for the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Schengen Area, the World Trade Organization and many other international organisations. While not an official member, Spain has a "Permanent Invitation" to the G20 summits, participating in every summit, which makes Spain a de facto member of the group; the origins of the Roman name Hispania, from which the modern name España was derived, are uncertain due to inadequate evidence, although it is documented that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians referred to the region as Spania, therefore the most accepted etymology is a Semitic-Phoenician one.
Down the centuries there have been a number of accounts and hypotheses: The Renaissance scholar Antonio de Nebrija proposed that the word Hispania evolved from the Iberian word Hispalis, meaning "city of the western world". Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the term span is the Phoenician word spy, meaning "to forge metals". Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean "the land where metals are forged", it may be a derivation of the Phoenician I-Shpania, meaning "island of rabbits", "land of rabbits" or "edge", a reference to Spain's location at the end of the Mediterranean. The word in question means "Hyrax" due to Phoenicians confusing the two animals. Hispania may derive from the poetic use of the term Hesperia, reflecting the Greek perception of Italy as a "western land" or "land of the setting sun" (Hesperia
Drupe
In botany, a drupe is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a single shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, from flowers with superior ovaries; the definitive characteristic of a drupe is that the hard, "lignified" stone is derived from the ovary wall of the flower—in an aggregate fruit composed of small, individual drupes, each individual is termed a drupelet and may together form a botanic berry. Other fleshy fruits may have a stony enclosure that comes from the seed coat surrounding the seed, but such fruits are not drupes; some flowering plants that produce drupes are: coffee, mango, most palms, white sapote and all members of the genus Prunus, including the almond, cherry, nectarine and plum. The term drupaceous is applied to a fruit which has the structure and texture of a drupe, but which does not fit the definition of a drupe; the boundary between a drupe and a berry is not always clear. Thus, some sources describe the fruit of species of the genus Persea, which includes the avocado, as a "drupe", others describe avocado fruit as a "berry".
One definition of "berry" requires the endocarp to be less than 2 mm thick, other fruits with a stony endocarp being "drupes". In marginal cases, terms such as "drupaceous" or "drupe-like" may be used; the term stone fruit can be a synonym for drupe or, more it can mean just the fruit of the genus Prunus. Freestone refers to a drupe having a stone with ease; the flesh does not need to be cut to free the stone. Freestone varieties of fruits are preferred for uses that require careful removal of the stone if removal will be done by hand. Freestone plums are preferred for making homegrown prunes, freestone sour cherries are preferred for making pies and cherry soup. Clingstone refers to a drupe having a stone which cannot be removed from the flesh; the flesh is attached to the stone and must be cut to free the stone. Clingstone varieties of fruits in the genus Prunus are preferred as table fruit and for jams, because the flesh of clingstone fruits tends to be more tender and juicy throughout. Tryma is a specialized term for such nut-like drupes.
Hickory nuts and walnuts in the Juglandaceae family grow within an outer husk. Many drupes, with their sweet, fleshy outer layer, attract the attention of animals as a food, the plant population benefits from the resulting dispersal of its seeds; the endocarp is sometimes dropped after the fleshy part is eaten, but is swallowed, passing through the digestive tract, returned to the soil in feces with the seed inside unharmed. This passage through the digestive tract can reduce the thickness of the endocarp, thus can aid in germination rates; the process is known as scarification. Typical drupes include apricots, peaches, cherries and amlas. Other examples include ivy; the coconut is a drupe, but the mesocarp is fibrous or dry, so this type of fruit is classified as a simple dry, fibrous drupe. Unlike other drupes, the coconut seed is unlikely to be dispersed by being swallowed by fauna, due to its large size, it can, float long distances across oceans. Bramble fruits are aggregates of drupelets; the fruit of blackberries and raspberries comes from a single flower whose pistil is made up of a number of free carpels.
However, which resemble blackberries, are not aggregate fruit, but are multiple fruits derived from bunches of catkins, each drupelet thus belonging to a different flower. Certain drupes occur in large clusters, as in the case of palm species, where a sizable array of drupes is found in a cluster. Examples of such large drupe clusters include dates, Jubaea chilensis in central Chile and Washingtonia filifera in the Sonoran Desert of North America. Pome Identification Of Major Fruit Types Fruits Called Nuts "Drupe". New International Encyclopedia. 1905
Bay leaf
The Bay leaf is an aromatic leaf used in cooking. It can be used as dried and ground, it comes from several plants such as: Bay laurel. Fresh or dried bay leaves are used in cooking for their distinctive fragrance; the leaves should be removed from the cooked food before eating. The leaves are used to flavour soups, braises and pâtés in Mediterranean and Latin American cuisine; the fresh leaves are mild and do not develop their full flavour until several weeks after picking and drying. California bay leaf – the leaf of the California bay tree known as California laurel, Oregon myrtle, pepperwood, is similar to the Mediterranean bay laurel, but has a stronger flavour. Indian bay leaf or malabathrum differs in that bay laurel leaves are shorter and light to medium green in colour, with one large vein down the length of the leaf, while tejpat leaves are about twice as long and wider olive green in colour, with three veins down the length of the leaf and is culinarily quite different, having a fragrance and taste similar to cinnamon bark, but milder.
Indonesian bay leaf or Indonesian laurel is not found outside Indonesia. West Indian bay leaf, the leaf of the West Indian bay tree, used culinarily and to produce the cologne called bay rum. Mexican bay leaf; the leaves contain about 1.3% essential oils, consisting of 45% eucalyptol, 12% other terpenes, 8-12% terpinyl acetate, 3–4% sesquiterpenes, 3% methyleugenol, other α- and β-pinenes, linalool, geraniol and contain lauric acid also. If eaten whole, bay leaves have a sharp, bitter taste; as with many spices and flavourings, the fragrance of the bay leaf is more noticeable than its taste. When dried, the fragrance is herbal floral, somewhat similar to oregano and thyme. Myrcene, a component of many essential oils used in perfumery, can be extracted from the bay leaf, they contain eugenol. In Indian and Pakistani cuisine, bay laurel leaves are sometimes used in place of Indian bay leaf, although they have a different flavour, they are most used in rice dishes like biryani and as an ingredient in garam masala.
Bay leaves are packaged as tejpatta, creating confusion between the two herbs. In the Philippines, dried bay laurel leaves are used in several Filipino dishes such as menudo, beef pares, adobo. Bay leaves were used for flavouring by the ancient Greeks, they are a fixture in the cooking of many European cuisines, as well as in the Americas. They are used in soups, meat, vegetable dishes, sauces; the leaves flavour many classic French dishes. The leaves are most used whole and removed before serving. Thai and Laotian cuisine employs bay leaf in a few Arab-influenced dishes, notably massaman curry. Bay leaves can be crushed or ground before cooking. Crushed bay leaves impart more fragrance than whole leaves, but are more difficult to remove, thus they are used in a muslin bag or tea infuser. Ground bay laurel may be substituted for whole leaves, does not need to be removed, but it is much stronger. Bay leaves are used in the making of jerk chicken in the Caribbean Islands; the bay leaves are placed on the cool side of the grill.
Pimento sticks are placed on top of the leaves and the chicken is placed on top and smoked. Bay leaves can be used scattered in a pantry to repel meal moths, cockroaches and silverfish. Bay leaves have been used in entomology as the active ingredient in killing jars; the crushed, young leaves are put into the jar under a layer of paper. The vapors they release kill insects but and keep the specimens relaxed and easy to mount; the leaves discourage the growth of molds. They are not effective for killing large beetles and similar specimens, but insects that have been killed in a cyanide killing jar can be transferred to a laurel jar to await mounting. There is confusion in the literature about whether Laurus nobilis is a source of cyanide to any practical extent, but there is no evidence that cyanide is relevant to its value in killing jars, it is rich in various essential oil components that could incapacitate insects in high concentrations. It is unclear to what extent the alleged effect of cyanide released by the crushed leaves has been mis-attributed to Laurus nobilis in confusion with the unrelated Prunus laurocerasus, the so-called cherry laurel, which does contain dangerous concentrations of cyanogenic glycocides together with the enzymes to generate the hydrogen cyanide from the glycocides if the leaf is physically damaged.
Some members of the laurel family, as well as the unrelated but visually similar mountain laurel and cherry laurel, have leaves that are poisonous to humans and livestock. While these plants are not sold anywhere for culinary use, their visual similarity to bay leaves has led to the oft-repeated belief that bay leaves should be removed from food after cooking because they are poisonous; this is not true. However, they remain unpleasantly stiff after thorough cooking, if swallowed whole or in large pieces, they may pos
Shrub
A shrub or bush is a small- to medium-sized woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody, they are distinguished from trees by their multiple stems and shorter height, are under 6 m tall. Plants of many species may grow either depending on their growing conditions. Small, low shrubs less than 2 m tall, such as lavender and most small garden varieties of rose, are termed "subshrubs". An area of cultivated shrubs in a park or a garden is known as a shrubbery; when clipped as topiary, suitable species or varieties of shrubs develop dense foliage and many small leafy branches growing close together. Many shrubs respond well to renewal pruning, in which hard cutting back to a "stool" results in long new stems known as "canes". Other shrubs respond better to selective pruning to reveal their character. Shrubs in common garden practice are considered broad-leaved plants, though some smaller conifers such as mountain pine and common juniper are shrubby in structure. Species that grow into a shrubby habit may be either evergreen.
In botany and ecology, a shrub is more used to describe the particular physical structural or plant life-form of woody plants which are less than 8 metres high and have many stems arising at or near the base. For example, a descriptive system adopted in Australia is based on structural characteristics based on life-form, plus the height and amount of foliage cover of the tallest layer or dominant species. For shrubs 2–8 metres high the following structural forms are categorized: dense foliage cover — closed-shrub mid-dense foliage cover — open-shrub sparse foliage cover — tall shrubland sparse foliage cover — tall open shrublandFor shrubs less than 2 metres high the following structural forms are categorized: dense foliage cover — closed-heath or closed low shrubland— mid-dense foliage cover — open-heath or mid-dense low shrubland— sparse foliage cover — low shrubland sparse foliage cover — low open shrubland Those marked with * can develop into tree form
Glossary of botanical terms
This glossary of botanical terms is a list of terms relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the related Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary of leaf morphology. See List of Latin and Greek words used in systematic names. You can help by adding illustrations. Ab- A prefix meaning "from, away from, or outside". Abaxial The surface of an organ facing away from the organ's axis, e.g. the lower surface of a lateral organ such as a leaf or petal. Abort To abandon development of a structure or organ. Abscission The shedding of an organ, mature or aged, e.g. a ripe fruit or an old leaf. Abscission zone A specialised layer of tissue that allows an organ to be shed by abscission when it is ripe or senescent. Formed, for example, at the base of a petiole or pedicel. Acaulescent Having no apparent stem, or at least none visible above the ground surface. Examples include some species of Agave and Attalea. Accrescent Increasing in size with age, such as a calyx that continues to grow after the corolla has fallen, for example in Physalis peruviana.
-aceae A suffix added to the stem of a generic name to form the name of a taxonomic family. Achene A dry, 1-seeded indehiscent fruit, e.g. in the genus Ranunculus. Acicular Slender or needle-shaped. Acropetal Moving from roots to leaves, e.g. of molecular signals in plants. Acrophyll The regular leaves of a mature plant, produced above the base. Acrostichoid Covering the entire abaxial surface of a frond densely so, as in Elaphoglossum and Acrostichum. Actino- A prefix that indicates a radial pattern, form, or morphology. Actinodromous Palmate or radially arranged venation with three or more primary veins arising at or near the base of the leaf and either reaching the margin or not. Actinomorphic Regular. Applies e.g. to steles and flowers in which the perianth segments within each whorl are alike in size and shape. Compare regular. Aculeate Armed with prickles, e.g. the stem of a rose. Acuminate Tapering to a point. Acute Sharply pointed. Compare obtuse. Ad- A prefix meaning "near or towards". Adaxial The surface of an organ facing towards the organ's axis, e.g. the upper surface of a lateral organ such as a leaf or petal.
Adnate Grown or fused to an organ of a different kind along a margin, e.g. a stamen fused to a petal. Compare connate. Adventitious A structure produced in an abnormal position, e.g. an adventitious bud produced from a stem rather than from the axil of a leaf. Adventive Introduced accidentally. Aerial Of the air. Aestivation The arrangement of sepals and petals or their lobes in an unexpanded flower bud. Compare vernation, the arrangement of leaves in a bud. aff. With affinity to others, akin to. Aggregate fruit A cluster of fruits formed from the free carpels of one flower, e.g. a blackberry. Compare multiple fruit. Agricultural weed See weed. alate Having a wing or wings. Albumen An older name for the endosperm of flowering plants. Except for being a storage tissue for nutrients, it is not at all like the albumen of animal embryos. Albuminous Containing endosperm. -ales A suffix added to the stem of a generic name or descriptive name to form the name of a taxonomic order. Alien A plant introduced to an area outside its natural range.
Synonymous to or used in combination with foreign, non-native, non-indigenous. Alkaloid A molecule with a nitrogenous base used as a drug, e.g. morphine and strychnine, each of which occurs in certain plants. Alternate 1. Leaves or flowers borne singly including spiralled parts. 2. When something occurs between something else, e.g. stamens alternating with petals. Compare opposite. Ament A synonym of catkin. Amphitropous When the ovule is bent so that both ends are near each other. Compare anatropous and orthotropous. Amplexicaul With the base dilated and clasping the stem of leaves. Anastomose Branching and rejoining, as with leaf venation. Anastomosis A connection or fusion of two or more veins that are diverging or branching, thereby forming a network. Anatropous When an ovule is inverted so that the micropyle faces the placenta. Compare amphitropous, orthotropous. Androdioecious Of plants, having male flowers on separate individuals. Compare andromonoecious, polygamodioecious, polygamomonoecious, polygamous.
Androecium Male parts of flower. Compare gynoecium. Abbreviation: A. For instance A 3+3 indicates 6 stamens in two whorls. Androgynophore A stalk bearing both the androecium and gynoecium of a flower above the level of insertion of the perianth. Androgynous With male and female flowers in the same inflorescence. Androphore The stalk or column supporting the stamens in certain flowers. Andromonoecious Having bisexual flowers and male flowers on the same individual plant. Compare gynomonoecious, polygamodioecious, polygamomonoecious, polygamous. Anemophily Pollination by wind. Angiosperm A flowering plant. Anisomery The condition of hav
Portugal
Portugal the Portuguese Republic, is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost sovereign state of mainland Europe, being bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain, its territory includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. Portugal is the oldest state on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the oldest in Europe, its territory having been continuously settled and fought over since prehistoric times; the pre-Celtic people, Celts and Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigoths and Suebi Germanic peoples. Portugal as a country was established during the Christian Reconquista against the Moors who had invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 711 AD. Founded in 868, the County of Portugal gained prominence after the Battle of São Mamede in 1128; the Kingdom of Portugal was proclaimed following the Battle of Ourique in 1139, independence from León was recognised by the Treaty of Zamora in 1143.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the world's major economic and military powers. During this period, today referred to as the Age of Discovery, Portuguese explorers pioneered maritime exploration, notably under royal patronage of Prince Henry the Navigator and King John II, with such notable voyages as Bartolomeu Dias' sailing beyond the Cape of Good Hope, Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India and the European discovery of Brazil. During this time Portugal monopolized the spice trade, divided the world into hemispheres of dominion with Castille, the empire expanded with military campaigns in Asia. However, events such as the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, the country's occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, the independence of Brazil, a late industrialization compared to other European powers, erased to a great extent Portugal's prior opulence. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established being superseded by the Estado Novo right-wing authoritarian regime.
Democracy was restored after the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to all its overseas territories; the handover of Macau to China in 1999 marked the end of what can be considered the longest-lived colonial empire. Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe, a legacy of around 250 million Portuguese speakers, many Portuguese-based creoles, it is a developed country with a high-income advanced economy and high living standards. Additionally, it is placed in rankings of moral freedom, democracy, press freedom, social progress, LGBT rights. A member of the United Nations and the European Union, Portugal was one of the founding members of NATO, the eurozone, the OECD, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries; the word Portugal derives from the Roman-Celtic place name Portus Cale. Portus, the Latin word for port or harbour, Cala or Cailleach was the name of a Celtic goddess – in Scotland she is known as Beira – and the name of an early settlement located at the mouth of the Douro River which flows into the Atlantic Ocean in the north of what is now Portugal.
At the time the land of a specific people was named after its deity. Those names are the origins of the - gal in Galicia. Incidentally, the meaning of Cale or Calle is a derivation of the Celtic word for port which would confirm old links to pre-Roman, Celtic languages which compare to today's Irish caladh or Scottish cala, both meaning port; some French scholars believe it may have come from ` Portus Gallus', the port of the Celts. Around 200 BC, the Romans took the Iberian Peninsula from the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War, in the process conquered Cale and renamed it Portus Cale incorporating it to the province of Gaellicia with capital in Bracara Augusta. During the Middle Ages, the region around Portus Cale became known by the Suebi and Visigoths as Portucale; the name Portucale evolved into Portugale during the 7th and 8th centuries, by the 9th century, that term was used extensively to refer to the region between the rivers Douro and Minho. By the 11th and 12th centuries, Portugallia or Portvgalliae was referred to as Portugal.
The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe. The name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale; the region was settled by Pre-Celts and Celts, giving origin to peoples like the Gallaeci, Lusitanians and Cynetes, visited by Phoenicians, Ancient Greeks and Carthaginians, incorporated in the Roman Republic dominions as Lusitania and part of Gallaecia, after 45 BC until 298 AD. The region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula; these were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, did form organized societies. Neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing, it is believed by some scholars that early in the first millennium BC, several waves of Celts invaded Portugal from Central Europe and inter-married with the local populations, forming differe
Plant
Plants are multicellular, predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Plants were treated as one of two kingdoms including all living things that were not animals, all algae and fungi were treated as plants. However, all current definitions of Plantae exclude the fungi and some algae, as well as the prokaryotes. By one definition, plants form the clade Viridiplantae, a group that includes the flowering plants and other gymnosperms and their allies, liverworts and the green algae, but excludes the red and brown algae. Green plants obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts that are derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria, their chloroplasts contain b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic or mycotrophic and have lost the ability to produce normal amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, although asexual reproduction is common.
There are about 320 thousand species of plants, of which the great majority, some 260–290 thousand, are seed plants. Green plants provide a substantial proportion of the world's molecular oxygen and are the basis of most of Earth's ecosystems on land. Plants that produce grain and vegetables form humankind's basic foods, have been domesticated for millennia. Plants have many cultural and other uses, as ornaments, building materials, writing material and, in great variety, they have been the source of medicines and psychoactive drugs; the scientific study of plants is known as a branch of biology. All living things were traditionally placed into one of two groups and animals; this classification may date from Aristotle, who made the distincton between plants, which do not move, animals, which are mobile to catch their food. Much when Linnaeus created the basis of the modern system of scientific classification, these two groups became the kingdoms Vegetabilia and Animalia. Since it has become clear that the plant kingdom as defined included several unrelated groups, the fungi and several groups of algae were removed to new kingdoms.
However, these organisms are still considered plants in popular contexts. The term "plant" implies the possession of the following traits multicellularity, possession of cell walls containing cellulose and the ability to carry out photosynthesis with primary chloroplasts; when the name Plantae or plant is applied to a specific group of organisms or taxon, it refers to one of four concepts. From least to most inclusive, these four groupings are: Another way of looking at the relationships between the different groups that have been called "plants" is through a cladogram, which shows their evolutionary relationships; these are not yet settled, but one accepted relationship between the three groups described above is shown below. Those which have been called "plants" are in bold; the way in which the groups of green algae are combined and named varies between authors. Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce food by photosynthesis and thus have traditionally been included in the plant kingdom.
The seaweeds range from large multicellular algae to single-celled organisms and are classified into three groups, the green algae, red algae and brown algae. There is good evidence that the brown algae evolved independently from the others, from non-photosynthetic ancestors that formed endosymbiotic relationships with red algae rather than from cyanobacteria, they are no longer classified as plants as defined here; the Viridiplantae, the green plants – green algae and land plants – form a clade, a group consisting of all the descendants of a common ancestor. With a few exceptions, the green plants have the following features in common, they undergo closed mitosis without centrioles, have mitochondria with flat cristae. The chloroplasts of green plants are surrounded by two membranes, suggesting they originated directly from endosymbiotic cyanobacteria. Two additional groups, the Rhodophyta and Glaucophyta have primary chloroplasts that appear to be derived directly from endosymbiotic cyanobacteria, although they differ from Viridiplantae in the pigments which are used in photosynthesis and so are different in colour.
These groups differ from green plants in that the storage polysaccharide is floridean starch and is stored in the cytoplasm rather than in the plastids. They appear to have had a common origin with Viridiplantae and the three groups form the clade Archaeplastida, whose name implies that their chloroplasts were derived from a single ancient endosymbiotic event; this is the broadest modern definition of the term'plant'. In contrast, most other algae not only have different pigments but have chloroplasts with three or four surrounding membranes, they are not close relatives of the Archaeplastida having acquired chloroplasts separately from ingested or symbiotic green and red algae. They are thus not included in the broadest modern definition of the plant kingdom, although they were in the past; the green plants or Viridiplantae were traditionally divided into the green algae (including
