Students determine whether an organism is a plant

1. Can you guess whether each
of these fascinating
organisms is a plant?
Use what you know about the
characteristics that all
plants have in common and
discuss with your team!

2. • Catches insects and
spiders to eat
It’s a Plant!
• Plants that catch
animals are called
carnivorous plants

3. Not a Plant!
• Mushrooms are fungi, a different
kingdom of life than plants or animals
• The mushroom is just one part of a
fungus. The main body, called the
mycelium, spreads through the ground
in tiny threads called hyphae

4. • “Blooms” in bodies of water
• Makes its own food using photosynthesis
• Different kinds can be different colors,
such as green, blue, brown or red
• Classified as Protists or Chromists, not plants. Algae is an
informal term that includes lots of different organisms
• Most “algae” do not have the same structures as plants, though
some plants are called algae because the term is not specific
Not a Plant!

5. • Micro-organisms too small to be seen
with the naked eye
• Some kinds help with body functions
and some kinds make animals sick
• Some bacteria, called cyanobacteria
use photosynthesis to make food.
Not a Plant!
• Bacteria are prokaryotes.
• All plats are eukaryotes
• Bacteria are their own domain of life.
They are more different from plants than
animals are

6. • Is this pokémon more like a plant or an animal?
More
information
is needed

7. • You can find it in warm,
shallow waters
• Many types of corals form a
reef, which provides shelter
to fish and other organisms
Not a Plant!
• Corals are animals in the phylum Cnidaria
• A coral is colony of tiny polyps, all with the same genes
• Reef building corals build a hard external skeleton out
of calcium carbonate

8. • Ferns do not produce flowers or fruit
• Ferns grow from spores, not seeds
It’s a Plant!
• Ferns have the same cell structure as other
plants and vascular tissue that help move
water and nutrients

9. • Comes in many colors,
sizes and forms
• Makes its own food using
photosynthesis Not a Plant!
• Lichens are composite organisms.
While they look and act like one
thing, they are really two living
things working together.
• To make a lichen, a strong fungi
teams up with an algae or
cyanobacteria, which can make
food using photosynthesis. They
work together to hang on to
something, produce energy and
grow.

10. • It has hair and produces milk.
Sounds kind of like a… mammal?
It’s a Plant!
• A coconut is the seed or fruit of a
coconut tree (also called coconut palm)
• A coconut is not really a nut, but a type
of fruit called a drupe

11. Not a Plant!
• This sea slug steals chloroplasts
from zooxanthellae algae and use
them in their own cells. It can get
most of its food this way.
• It keeps the chloroplasts alive by
making its own chlorophyll
• Kleptoplasty = photosynthesis
using stolen chloroplasts

12. • Ivy can creep on the ground or climb high
It’s a Plant!
• Ivy produces flowers and fruit

13. Not a Plant!
• mold is a fungus with
multicellular hyphae which
compose the mycelium

14. • Likes to grow in damp, shady locations
• Does not have flowers or seeds
• Generally do not have vascular tissue
(xylem and phloem) to move water
and nutrients It’s a Plant!

15. • A tasty snack for squirrels and other
animals, but is it a plant?
It’s a Plant!
• Acorns are the seeds of oak trees

16. Not a
Plant!

17. • Loved by bees, butterflies, and
other pollinators, hated by people
with allergies. Is it a plant?
It’s a Plant!
• Pollen carries the male gametes to
produce new seeds inside the ovary

18. • The tiny base of marine ecosystems
Not a Plant!
• Plankton can be anything that cannot
swim against a current, including
bacteria, micro-algae, and protists

19. • Absorbent and yellow and porous is he
Not a Plant!
• Sponges are a type of animal

20. • Grows in underwater “forests”
• Makes a tasty, nutritious snack
Not a Plant!
• Kelp are a type of brown algae
• Kelp has evolved structures that look like a
plant’s but have different tissues.
• Its “roots” are called holdfasts and do not
absorb nutrients,
• Its ”leaves” are called blades
• Its “stem” is called a stripe

21. • Used for thousands of years to
make bread and fermented drinks
• Also used to make biofuels Not a Plant!
• Yeasts are single-celled fungi
• Some yeasts can create long
chains and look fairly large

22. • Or Baby Groot