Seedless
VASCULAR
Plants
Ch. 29.3 – Dec 5, 2014
Vascular Plants
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Vascular plants have true…
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Vascular plants have roots
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Anchors the plants
Absorbs water and nutrients from the soil
Vascular plants have stems
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roots, stems and leaves
Conducts water to the leaves
Vascular plants have leaves
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Increase the surface area - more solar energy for photosynthesis
Covered by waxy cuticle
Regulated pores called stomata
Vascular Plants
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Vascular plants have two types of vascular tissue
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Xylem
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Conducts water and minerals
Includes dead cells called tracheids
Strong walled cells support body of plant
Phloem
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Distributes sugars, amino acids, and
organic products throughout the plant
Consists of living cells
Vascular Plants
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Sporophyte is the dominant generation in vascular plants

Advantageous?
Sporophyte is the generation with vascular tissue
 Sporophyte is diploid
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Two types of vascular plants: seedless and seeded
Seedless Vascular Plants
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Seedless vascular plants form two phyla:
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Lycophyta
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Ex. club mosses
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Ex. ferns, horsetails, and whisk ferns
Pterophyta
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Both disperse their offspring by producing wind-blown spores
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When spores germinate, they produce a small gametophyte
that is independent of the sporophyte for its nutrition
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Antheridia release flagellated sperm which swim in a film of
external water to the archegonia, where fertilization occurs
Seedless Vascular Plants
LYCOPHYTES (PHYLUM LYCOPHYTA)
Strobili
(clusters of
sporophylls)
Isoetes
gunnii,
a quillwort
Selaginella apoda,
a spike moss
Diphasiastrum tristachyum, a club moss
PTEROPHYTES (PHYLUM PTEROPHYTA)
Psilotum
nudum,
a whisk
fern
Equisetum
arvense,
field
horsetail
Athyrium
filix-femina,
lady fern
Vegetative stem
Strobilus on
fertile stem
WHISK FERNS AND RELATIVES
HORSETAILS
FERNS
Lycophytes
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Also known as club mosses
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Among the first land plants to have vascular tissue
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What group do mosses belong to?
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Sporangia are born on terminal clusters of leaves, called
strobili, which are club shaped
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Spores can be harvested + sold as lycopodium powder, or
vegetable sulfur - used in pharmaceuticals and fireworks
Lycophytes
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Structure
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Fleshy underground and horizontal stem –
rhizome
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Sends up upright aerial stems
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Tightly packed, scale like leaves cover the
stems and braches
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Small leaves – microphylls each have a single
vein composed of xylem and phloem
Ferns
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Phylum Polypodiophyta
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Seedless vascular plants
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Largest group of plants other than flowering
plants
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Great diversity in form and habitat
Fronds (leaves) can vary
Ferns - Lifecycle
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Dominant sporophyte produces windblown spores
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Spores germinate - tiny green and independent
gametophyte develops
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Gametophyte is water dependent
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Flagellated sperm produced within antheridia require outside
sources of moisture to swim to the eggs in archegonia
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Upon fertilization, zygote develops into the sporophyte
Ferns – Adaptations + Uses
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Leaves of the sporophyte first appear as a fiddlehead,
unrolls as it grows
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Ferns can spread to drier areas with their
rhizomes and produce fiddleheads (asexual)
Uses
 Decorative bouquets and ornamental plants
 Building materials – resist decay
 Some are eaten…but some are also carcinogenic
 Complete
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“Check Your Progress”
pg. 609 #1-3
 Handouts
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Whisk ferns and Horsetails
Fern diagram
Questions
Review
 Dominant
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Why?
 Fern
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generation in vascular plants?
versus Moss life cycle
Differences?
Similarities?
 What
are the three aspects of vascular
plants?