zfs and partitions

how dos zfs manage partitions?
if I create a zpool of say two whole drives, what partitions does zfs
create on those drives?
also as far as I understand you can't forgo pools in zfs, right?
I can't just put a zfs filesystem on top of a partition like I can with
tradition filesystems? Am I correct in saying so?
I'm using zfs on solaris 11, so the conventions are a little confusing to
me.