ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Phytochorion

Okay, so imagine you are playing a game where you have a bunch of different toys and you try to group them together based on what they have in common. Maybe one group has all the balls, another group has all the stuffed animals, and another group has all the action figures.

Scientists play a similar game, but with plants! They look at all the different kinds of plants in different areas of the world and try to group them together based on what they have in common. These groups are called phytochorions, and they are like teams of plants that live in the same neighborhood.

But instead of grouping plants together based on what they look like or what they are made of, scientists group them together based on where they live and what kind of environment they like. For example, plants that live in a really cold place like Antarctica are in a different phytochorion than plants that live in a really hot place like the Sahara Desert.

Scientists study phytochorions to learn more about how different plants have adapted to different environments. It's kind of like learning how different animals live in different habitats, but for plants!