LESSON 2
LI: To describe how Ferns and Mosses are classified
Introduction:
Discuss:
What 5 categories are plants put into?
Can you remember specific characteristics of each?
Today, we are going to focus on Ferns and Mosses.
Here are their characteristics:

Here is some more info. Read and discuss the following:
Mosses
Mosses are flowerless/seedless plants. They reproduce by spores. They are plants that most people have seen but many have ignored. The most commonly found group is the green mosses that cover rotting logs, grow on the bark of trees, and grow in the spray of waterfalls, along streams and in bogs. Even though mosses often thrive in wet habitats, some mosses and some liverworts can survive in quite dry environments such as sandy soils and exposed rock outcrops.
Ferns
Ferns are a group of non-flowering plants that reproduce by releasing spores rather than seeds and they include the true ferns and other graceful, primarily forest-dwelling plants. There are about eleven thousand different species of ferns making them the most diverse land plants after the flowering plants (angiosperms).
There are another 2 ways in which we can classify plants:
Vascular Plants
Non-vascular
Vascular Plants:
- Vascular plants have tube-like structures called xylem and phloem. They transport (move) water, mineral and food around the plant.
Non-vascular Plants:
- Plants that absorb water through the surface of their leaves.

Discuss:
Look at the pictures of Ferns and Mosses, below. Which do you think is Vascular/non-vascular? Why? Look closely!

Ferns are vascular plants; they have tube like structures which transport water, minerals and food around the plant.
Mosses are non-vascular plant; they absorb water through the surface of their leaves. They do not have tube like structures.
Activity:
Have a go at grouping the following plants into Vascular/Non-vascular. Discuss your reasons why:

EXT: In vascular plants, explain what xylem and phloem are.
Support: Remember, vascular plants have a tube-like structure, and non-vascular plants don’t.