The Plant and the Animal Kingdom - Essay Example

Many animals can move from one place to another in search of food, better places to live or find mates while plants are immobile hence, cannot move from one place to another. Moreover, the life cycle of most plants involves an alternation between the haploid phase and the diploid phase while in the case of the animal kingdom, the life cycle of animals is continuous (Arthur, pg 162).

Plants kingdom consists of over 25,000 different species and is the second-largest kingdom ever known (Caroll 177). It consists of all the plants ranging from the tiny green mosses to giant trees and almost every creature on earth which does not have the ability to make their own food depend on them either directly or indirectly. They depend on them directly through eating them or indirectly through eating other animals which depend on the plants (Mader 399).

Despite the differences between the plant and animals kingdom, they possess also certain similarities which include the fact that both of them are alive hence plants can make their own food and animals move around to look for food. Both plants and animals also have the ability to reproduce to boost their population (Martin and Hine 376).

In this case, animals give birth to babies or lay eggs from which the babies hatch while on the other hand plants reproduce by shedding seeds which they disperse to various places through wind or animals excrement, a term usually referred to as pollination (Wilhelm 201). Both the plants and animals also eliminate waste products from their bodies. For instance, deciduous trees eliminate their wastes through the leaves which usually fall down during the autumn season. On the other hand, animals eliminate their wastes materials after the respiration process through a process known as excretion. Both plants and animals also respire, and in this case, plants take in Carbon dioxide gas and give out oxygen, while animals take in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide.

Vallin and Heath argue that God’s work was miraculous since He created the differences between the plant and animals kingdom perhaps with the reason of enabling them to depend on each other, in a way of controlling the population of the kingdoms (67). For instance, animals would control the plant's population though feeding on them. On the other hand, the possible reason for similarity would be the fact that they would be able to balance the resources. For instance, during respiration plants give out oxygen needed by animals while animals give out carbon dioxide which is needed by the animals, hence they would be no single time when one resource would be scarce (Gabrielle and Pfirrmann 230). Read More