There are noticeable differences between the two. Plants are stationary or fixed – they don’t move. Since they have to be upright, they
have a large quantity of supportive tissue. The supportive tissue generally has dead cells.
Animals on the other hand move around in search of food, mates and shelter. They consume more energy as compared to plants. Most of the tissues they contain are living
Another difference between animals and plants is in the pattern of growth. The growth in plants is limited to certain regions, while this is not so in animals. There are some tissues in plants that divide throughout their life. These tissues are localised in certain regions. Based on the dividing capacity of the tissues, various plant tissues can be classified as growing or meristematic tissue and permanent tissue. Cell growth in animals is more uniform. So, there is no such demarcation of dividing and nondividing regions in animals.
The structural organisation of organs and organ systems is far more specialised and localised in complex animals than even in very complex plants. This fundamental difference reflects the different modes of life pursued by these two major groups of organisms, particularly in their different feeding methods.
Also, they are differently adapted for a sedentary existence on one hand (plants) and active locomotion on the other (animals), contributing to this difference in organ system design.
It is with reference to these complex animal and plant bodies that we will now talk about the concept of tissues in some detail