Classification of plants
Plants are generally classified based on three major criteria
These are:
- Botanical classification
- Agricultural classification
- Classification based on life cycle
Botanical classification of plants
Plants are generally classified through the botanical method and the use of binomial system.
Agricultural classification of plants
This type of classification of plants is based on the uses of the plants.
In this type of classification, plant or crop are grouped into the following categories based on their uses.
Cereal plants: These plants belong to the Grass family and they provide carbohydrates, e.g maize, wheat, oats, barley , rice etc
Pulses: pulses are crops which are source of protein when consumed e.g beans, cowpea, groundnut, soyabean
Vegetable crops: vegetable crops are source of vitamins and minerals when consumed, e.g spinach, okra, tomatoes, lettuce etc .
Fibre crops: These crop plants are used for making clothing materials, bags, ropes etc. examples of these type of crop plants are cotton, sisal , hibiscus.
Roots and tuber crops: These crop produced tuber below the ground and they are source of carbohydrates. E.g yam, cassava, sweet potato etc
Spices: These crop plants provide vitamins and minerals when consumed, e.g onion, pepper, ginger , garlic etc
Fruit plants: These plants provide vitamins, and minerals when eaten, e.g cashew, mango, pineapple, pawpaw, guava, etc
Oil plants: These plants can provide oil when processed, industrial and domestical
e.g oil palm, coconut, soyabean, melon etc.
Beverage plants: These crop plants provide food drinks when processed into finished product.
examples of these type of crop plants are; coffee, Cocoa, Kola etc
Latex crops: These are crops which provide some white, sticky liquid called latex, which is used in plastic industry, e.g rubber.
Classification of plants based on life cycle
Plants are grouped into three categories based on their life cycle or their life span
Annual plants: They're plants that complete their lifecycle in one season, in other words, they they grow, mature, produces fruits and die within a year.
Examples of this type of plants are; rice, vegetables, millet, cowpea etc
Biennial plants: These type of complete their lifecycle within two years. They develop their vegetative parts during the first year, and produce fruits and die during the second year.
Examples of biennial plants are; ginger, pepper, carrot etc.
Perennial plants: in these type of plants, they grow, mature, and produce fruits for more than two years, they can live for three , five, ten, and even more years.
Examples of these plants are; mango , Cocoa, oil palm, banana etc