Seedless Plants
Mosses and Liverworts
Ferns and Horsetails
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
Reproduction in 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 (root-like
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
Ferns
• Can grow almost
anywhere.
• Have an
underground stem
called a rhizome.
• Leaves are called
fronds.
Fern Reproduction
Fern Frond
• Top of frond
• Underside of frond with sporangia
Horsetails
Horsetails
•
•
•
•
Small vascular plants.
Grow less than 1.3 meters tall.
Grow in wet, marshy places.
Pioneers used them to scrub pots
and pans.
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.