Seedless Plants
Mosses and Liverworts
Ferns, Horsetails, and Club
Mosses
Mosses and Liverworts
 Small
 Live on bark, rocks,
and soil
 No vascular
system
 Must live in places
that are wet
 No true roots,
stems, or leaves
Mosses
Liverworts
Mosses and Liverworts
 Live together in large groups
 Covering soil or rocks in a mat of
tiny green plants
 Each moss has rhizoids (rootlike structures)
 Rhizoids help anchor the plant
Importance of Mosses and
Liverworts:
 Usually the first plants to inhabit a
new environment.
 Form a thin layer of soil when they
die.
 They help hold the soil in place
which prevents erosion.
 Nesting material for birds.
 Peat moss can be burned as fuel.
Ferns, Horsetails, and
Club Mosses:
 Grow tall
 Have vascular
systems
Ferns
Ferns
 Can grow almost
anywhere.
 Have an
underground stem
called a rhizome.
 Leaves are called
fronds.
Horsetails
Horsetails
 Small vascular plants.
 Grow less than 1.3 meters tall.
 Grow in wet, marshy places.
 Stems are hollow and contain
cilia.
 Pioneers used them to scrub
pots and pans.
Club Mosses
 25 cm tall.
 Grow in
woodlands.
 Unlike other
mosses, they
have vascular
tissue.
Importance of Seedless
Vascular Plants
 Help form soil when they die.
 Also hold soil in place to prevent
erosion.
 Ferns serve as house plants.
 Some are cooked and eaten.
 Formed coal.