VASCULARPLANTS

SEEDLESS VASCULAR PLANTS  Vascular plants, such as ferns are much better adapted to life on land than nonvascular plants.  Vascular tissue allows materials to be transported quickly and effectively throughout the body of a plant.

Characteristics of Vascular Plants  They can grow much taller than mosses and hornworts  They have true leaves, stems and roots  Have a waxy coating on their leaves to prevent water loss  Reproduce by spores

Two types of vascular tissue  XYLEM: carries water and minerals throughout the plant  Only goes in 1 direction….UP XYLEM

Two types of vascular tissue  PHLOEM: carries food throughout the plant  Goes in both directions PHLOEM

Types of seedless vascular plants  Whisk Ferns: can be found in swamplands and dry rocky cliffs  Rhizomes: horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground

Types of seedless vascular plants  Club Mosses: small, creeping, terrestrial plants

Types of seedless vascular plants  Horsetails: they are erect, jointed, brittle and grooved, hollow except at the joints

Types of seedless vascular plants  Ferns: have true leaves but lack flowers and seeds  Fronds: part of fern leaf that has the spores  Fiddleheads

Parts of Ferns  Fronds: part of fern leaf that has the spores

Parts of Ferns  Fiddleheads: uncurled baby ferns

Reproduction in plants without seeds  Alteration of Generation: sporophyte (produces spores) turn into a gametophyte (produces a new plant)  Sexual reproduction that requires water for the sperm to reach the egg

Helpful effects of Ferns  Popular houseplants  Products from fern are used to grow other plants  Used in crop to house a bacteria that acts as a fertilizer  Some ferns can be eaten as food