Plant Phyla Project
Aubrey Irwin
Bryophyta
• Common Name: Mosses
• Major Group: Seedless Nonvascular
• Characteristics: Grow close to ground, absorb water and
nutrients, rhizoids.
• Habitat: Sea level as well as the highest altitudes occupied by
plants. Deserts or submerged in water. Most occupy moist,
shaded habitats.
• Reproduction: Rely on free-standing water
• Examples: Polytrichum and Sphagnum
• * Mosses are the most primitive living land plants.
Bryophyta
Hepatophyta
• Common Name: Liverworts
• Major Group: Seedless Nonvascular
• Characteristics: Must grow close to ground to absorb water
and nutrients directly. Free-standing water to reproduce.
• Habitat: Distributed globally, many tolerate direct sunlight,
and periods of total desiccation.
• Reproduction: Sexually, Asexually, Spores.
• Examples: Pallavicinia lyellii, Porella platyphylla, Pellia
epiphylla
• * Simplest of all living plants.
Hepatophyta
Anthocerophyta
• Common Name: Hornworts
• Major Group: Seedless Nonvascular
• Characteristics: Grow close to ground to absorb water and
nutrients
• Habitat: Tropical forests, along stream sides, disturbed fields
around the world.
• Reproduction: Spores, need free standing water to reproduce
• Examples: Dendroceros, notothyladacae, anthocerotaceae
• * Many Hornworts develop internal mucilage filled cavities.
These cavities are invaded by photosynthetic cyanobacteria. It
is this bacteria that gives Hornworts their distinctive bluegreen color.
Anthocerophyta
Lycophyta
• Common Name: Club Mosses
• Major Group: Seedless vascular
• Characteristics: Depend on water for reproduction but a
vascular system allows them to grow up off the ground.
• Habitat: Moist areas, tropics
• Reproduction: Water lets sperm swim to fertilize eggs
• Examples: Equisetum Palustre, Strobili
• *The temperate zone plants (small, trailing, evergreen) were
once collected in quantity to place a crudely woven evergreen
“blanket” on graves in cemeteries.
Lycophyta
Pterophyta
• Common Name: Ferns
• Major Group: Seedless Vascular
• Characteristics: Vascular system allows them to grow up off
the ground, no true roots
• Habitat: Tropics and subtropics, wetland areas, and along
rivers
• Reproduction: Needs water.
• Examples: Whisk Ferns, Boston Ferns, Horsetails
• * Largest group of living seedless vascular plants and most
familiar.
Pterophyta
Cycadophyta
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Common Name: Cycads
Major Group: Cone-bearing seed plant
Characteristics:
Habitat: Tropical Areas in Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australia
Reproduction: Cycads are gymnosperms ( naked seeded)
meaning that unfertilized seeds (ovulues) are open to air to be
directly fertilized by pollination.
• Examples:
• * Provided food for dinosaurs
Cycadophyta
Ginkophyta
• Common Name: Ginkgos
• Major Group:
• Characteristics: seeds are not enclosed in fruit, meat of nut is
edible, fleshy covering smells like rotten butter and is irritating
to skin
• Habitat: Where it occurs in the wild it is found infrequently in
deciduous forests and valleys on acidic loesss
• Reproduction: Release pollen
• Example: Ginkgo Biloba
• * Native to China, living fossil, people take supplements for
depression, oldest species of seed plants
Ginkophyta
Coniferophyta
• Common Name: Conifers
• Major Group: Cone-bearing seed plants
• Characteristics: Seeds are not enclosed in fruit, well adapted
to high altitudes, sloping hillsides, and poor soil
• Habitat: Mountainous Regions
• Reproduction:
• Example: Ponderosa Pine
• * Most diverse and common gymnosperms alive today.
• * Provide timber for paper.
Coniferophyta
Anthophyta
• Common Name: Flowering Plants
• Major Groups: Flowering seed plants
• Characteristics: Angio sperm, seed plants, seed enclosed in
fruits
• Habitat: Everywhere
• Reproduction: Gametes and fertilized eggs
• Examples: Marigolds, Daisy, Sunflowers
* The largest division of photosynthetic organisms - outnumbering all of the others put together.
* The dominant plants in most terrestrial ecosystems, (except boreal forest).
* Most of our crop and ornamental plants
Anthophyta