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 blue- green 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 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