plant

plant

¹

1. any living organism that typically synthesizes its food from inorganic substances, possesses cellulose cell walls, responds slowly and often permanently to a stimulus, lacks specialized sense organs and nervous system, and has no powers of locomotion

2. such an organism that is green, terrestrial, and smaller than a shrub or tree; a herb

3. a cutting, seedling, or similar structure, esp when ready for transplantation

4. Billiards Snooker a position in which the cue ball can be made to strike an intermediate which then pockets another ball

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plant

²

1. 

a. the land, buildings, and equipment used in carrying on an industrial, business, or other undertaking or service

b. (as modifier): plant costs

2. a factory or workshop

3. mobile mechanical equipment for construction, road-making, etc.

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Plant

An organism that belongs to the Kingdom Plantae (plant kingdom) in biological classification. The study of plants is called botany. See Botany, Classification, biological

The Plantae share the characteristics of multicellularity, cellulose cell walls, and photosynthesis using chlorophylls a and b (except for a few plants that are secondarily heterotrophic). Most plants are also structurally differentiated, usually having organs specialized for anchorage, support, and photosynthesis. Tissue specialization for photosynthetic, conducting, and covering functions is also characteristic. Plants have a sporic (rather than gametic or zygotic) life cycle that involves both sporophytic and gametophytic phases, although the latter is evolutionarily reduced in the majority of species. Reproduction is sexual, but diversification of breeding systems is a prominent feature of many plant groups. See Photosynthesis, Reproduction (plant)

A conservative estimate of the number of described species of plants is 250,000. There are possibly two or three times that many species as yet undiscovered, primarily in the Southern Hemisphere. Plants are categorized into nonvascular and vascular groups, and the latter into seedless vascular plants and seed plants. The nonvascular plants include the liverworts, hornworts, and mosses. The vascular plants without seeds are the ground pines, horsetails, ferns, and whisk ferns; seed plants include cycads, ginkgos, conifers, gnetophytes, and flowering plants. Each of these groups constitutes a division in botanical nomenclature, which is equivalent to a phylum in the zoological system. See Plant taxonomy

McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Bioscience. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

plant

[plant]

(botany)

Any organism belonging to the kingdom Plantae, generally distinguished by the presence of chlorophyll, a rigid cell wall, and abundant, persistent, active embryonic tissue, and by the absence of the power of locomotion.

(computer science)

To place a number or instruction that has been generated in the course of a computer program in a storage location where it will be used or obeyed at a later stage of the program.

(industrial engineering)

The land, buildings, and equipment used in an industry.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

plant

A building or complex or a designated area. See outside plant and inside plant.

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