The key difference between algae and plant is that algae can be unicellular or multicellular while plants are always multicellular. Therefore, algae are simple life forms whereas plants are complex organisms.
Both plants and algae are ecologically similar in the ecosystem, and they independently produce their own food, being autotrophs. Despite these similarities, there is a distinct difference between algae and plants, as discussed in this article.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Algae
3. What are Plants
4. Side by Side Comparison – Algae vs Plants in Tabular Form
5. Summary
What is Algae?
Algae are eukaryotic autotrophs with either unicellular or multicellular forms. Algae are simple life forms that play a great role in energy circulation throughout the world. There are no specialised organs and cells in algae. In fact, the tissues found in algae are not considered as true plant tissues. There are three main forms of algae as unicellular, thallus, and filamentous. They are mostly found in aquatic ecosystems, and the number of terrestrial algal species is low. They could be either sessile or free-floating in the aquatic environment. When they are sessile, the whole body is connected to the substrate through a structure called holdfast or rhizoid.
Algae do not absorb nutrients from the substrate through the holdfast, but they are autotrophs. Collectively, they produce the largest amount of food through photosynthesis. Their photosynthetic pigments are chlorophyll, carotenoid, and phycobilin. Algae are a tremendously diverse group with an innumerable number of species. There are over 320,500 specimens of different species collected in the US National Herbarium. Their great diversity is justifiable with their long history that goes about a couple of billion years from today.
What are Plants?
Plants could be simply described as members of the Kingdom: Plantae. Plants are highly adapted to capture sunlight and absorb nutrients from the ground. The tissues in the plants are true plant tissues with a high degree of specialization to certain functions. Plants are complex organisms. The majority of plants are found in the terrestrial ecosystem using those specializations. Except for a very few species, plants are sessile with a highly developed system of roots to attach to the substrate. The roots of plants are not only attached to the ground but also absorb nutrients and water from the soil. Those absorbed content travel through a system of channels called xylem and phloem to perform their functions.
Photosynthesis is one of the major functions of plants, which produces food for animals. Chlorophyll and carotenoid are the most common photosynthetic pigments used to capture sunlight in plants. However, the body form of plants contains mainly three major structures known as leaves, roots, and trunk. Additionally, plants can never be unicellular but are always eukaryotic multicellular. There are about 315,000 species of plants on the Earth, and most of those (about 290,000 species) are flowering plants.
What is the Difference Between Algae and Plant?
Algae can be unicellular or multicellular while plants are always multicellular. Plants have true tissues but not algae. Algae can be unicellular, filamentous, or thallus in their structure whereas plants always have roots connected to a trunk that extends leaves. Moreover, plants are mostly sessile while algae are mostly free-floating.
Plants have roots to attach to the substrate and to absorb water and nutrients, whereas algae have root-like holdfast or rhizoid only to attach but not to absorb anything. Furthermore, plants are mostly terrestrial while algae are mostly aquatic. Chlorophyll and carotenoid are the photosynthetic pigments present in plants while algae have phycobilin in addition.
Summary – Algae vs Plant
The key difference between algae and plant is that algae can be unicellular or multicellular while plants are always multicellular. Therefore, algae are simple life forms whereas plants are complex organisms.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Pond In Thickets Of Green Algae” (CC0) via Pixy.org
2. “2942477” (CC0) via Pixabay