medium difficulty5 min

Kingdom Plantae and Animalia — Overview

Kingdom Plantae includes multicellular eukaryotes that generally make food by photosynthesis, while Animalia includes multicellular eukaryotes that ingest food and lack cell walls.

In one line: Plants make food; animals take food.

Practice This Concept

Understand it

Plants are usually fixed, have cell walls, and contain chlorophyll in green parts for photosynthesis. Animals are multicellular, do not have cell walls, and take in food from outside. Both are eukaryotic and multicellular, but they differ mainly in nutrition, cell wall, and body organisation.

Example

A mango tree belongs to Plantae, while a human being, fish, and earthworm belong to Animalia.

Rule to remember

Plantae: multicellular eukaryotic, cell wall, autotrophic nutrition in green plants.

Animalia: multicellular eukaryotic, no cell wall, heterotrophic ingestion.

See it worked out

Follow the example line by line, then use the same method on new questions.

Worked example

1To classify a mango tree and a dog, compare nutrition and cell wall.
2Mango has cell wall and photosynthesis, while dog ingests food and has no cell wall.

Method you can reuse

Check whether the organism is multicellular and eukaryotic, then compare cell wall, chlorophyll, and mode of nutrition.

Sketch it in your answer

Use a comparison table or branching chart showing Plantae and Animalia features with examples.

Check yourself

Answer the question in your head before opening the answer.

Try it yourself

Why is a mushroom not placed in Plantae even though it does not move like an animal?

Think first, then show answer

A mushroom is not placed in Plantae because it lacks chlorophyll-based photosynthesis and absorbs food like fungi, so movement alone cannot decide classification.

Common wrong answer

Writing 'all fixed organisms are plants'.

Why it loses marks: Fungi may be fixed but do not photosynthesise.

Don't mix this up

Students may use movement alone and say all non-moving organisms are plants, but fungi and some animals may not fit such a simple rule.

Exam tip

For Plantae versus Animalia, compare nutrition, cell wall, chlorophyll, and mode of obtaining food.

Write it in the exam

Each point is worth about one mark. Write point 1 for a 1-mark question and keep adding points as the marks go up.

How CBSE asks it

Questions may ask differences between plants and animals or why movement is not the only classification basis.

1
Enough for 1 mark
Kingdom Plantae includes multicellular eukaryotes that generally make food by photosynthesis, while Animalia includes multicellular eukaryotes that ingest food and lack cell walls.
2
Add for 2 marks
Example: A mango tree belongs to Plantae, while a human being, fish, and earthworm belong to Animalia.
3
Add for 3 marks
Plants are usually fixed, have cell walls, and contain chlorophyll in green parts for photosynthesis.

MCQ Quiz

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