1. SEEDLESS PLANTS
Prof. Ms. Vrushali S. Dighe Department Of Botany S. M. Joshi College, Hadapsar, Pune.

2. Continuing Trends in Plant Evolution
Reduction of water-dependent gametophyte
Vascular tissue – improved water/food transport
More efficient roots, stems, leaves
Tissues
Stomates
Green: all these are in sporophyte

3. Reduction of gametophyte
Specialization in sporophyte

4. Vascular tissue In sporophyte Interconnects all plant organs
Xylem - water
Phloem - sugar

5. Complex leaves Tissues Stomates

6. Plant classification review
Bryophytes – no seeds, no roots, no vascular
Mosses, liverworts, hornworts
Seedless, vascular plants – no seeds
Ferns, horsetails, club mosses, whisk ferns
Gymnosperms - seeds & cones
Conifers, cycads, ginkgo, gnetophytes
Flowering plants – seeds, flowers & fruits
Primitive, Monocots, Dicots

7. Seedless Vascular Plants
Ferns, horsetails, club mosses, whisk ferns
Sporophyte dominant
Gametophyte small but still tied to water
Dominant plants from late Devonian through early Permian
Equatorial coal forests
Today somewhat marginal, but successful
Heterospory in some (next time)

9. Fern Life Cycle Meiosis Gametophyte Fertilization Sporophyte
You do not need to know the details of this life cycle. Just, Where is the gametophyte and sporophyte?
Sporophyte

10. Fern gametophytes …
Mature fern sporophyte …
… with young sporophytes
… with clusters of sporangia

11. Whisk Fern, Psilotum Psilotum is subtropical
Exhibits several very primitive characters
No leaves (outgrowths of stem are not vascularized)
Dichotomous (equal “Y” shaped) branching of parts
Simple sporangia (in 3s)
“Roots” and stems similar morphology and vascular tissue simple

12. Club moss, Lycopodium

13. Horsetail, Equisetum

14. Carboniferous (-300 my) coal forest model
Lycophyta – Club mosses
Sphenophyta – Horse tails
Not seen: Tree ferns (Pterophyta) and seed ferns
Many giant, tree-sized versions of modern genera
Carboniferous (-300 my) coal forest model