Seed Plants

Gymnosperm and Angiosperms

EVOLUTION OF LAND PLANTS
CLADOGRAM OF LAND PLANTS
Gymnosperms
Phylum
Common
Name
Approx. # of
Species
Ginkgophyta Ginkgo 1
Cycadophyta Cycads 130
Gnetophyta Gnetae 75
Coniferophyta Conifers 600
Characteristics of Gymnosperms
Vascular tissue present
Phloem and xylem

Naked seeds

No flowers

Dominant generation: Sporophyte

Phylum Cycadophyta
The Cycads
General features of Cycads sporophyte
Resemble a fern or a
young palm trees
Monopodial growth
Persistent leaf scars
Dioecious
Crown of pinnate
leaves
Stem has little wood

Cycads are dioecious
Female cycad with
megasporophyllls
male cycad with pollen cone
Cycads exhibit leaf dimorphism
Cataphyll
Foliage leaves (crown)
Cycas revoluta Oliba or sago palm

C
y
c
a
d
a
c
e
a
e
Cycas revoluta
Cycas circinalis
Cycas circinalis Pitogo
Male Cycas circinalis
Female Cycas circinalis
Megasporophyll with seeds
Megasporophyll with
ovules
Zamia pumila
Ginkgophyta
Ginkgoales
Ginkgo biloba
Popular street tree
Highly branched woody
tree
Fan-shaped often 2-lobed
leaves w/ dichotomous
venation
Dioecious
Motile sperm
Ginkgo biloba produces long and short
shoot
Leaves are fan-shaped (bilobed) with
dichotomous venation
Ginkgo biloba
Male inflorescence resembles a catkin - With cones but do not
bear structures that resemble sporophylls
Ginkgo biloba
Ovules occur in pairs, naked and without
ovuliferous scales
Pharmaceutical importance of
Ginkgoes
Ginkgolides
Coniferophyta- Conifers
Highly branched trees
or shrubs with simple
leaves
50 genera and 550
species
Sperm non-motile
Evergreen leaves
Needle-like, scale-
like, flat blades
Leaves of conifers are simple
Abies bracteata with two
white bands
Scale-like leaves of cedar
Needle-like leaves and scale
leaves of pine
Leaves of conifers have transfusion tissues
Transfusion cells
A closer look to a pine tree
Long shoot and short shoot (spur shoot)
Sporophyte of pine tree
is dioecious.

Male cone (pollen cone)
Produce microspores.
Microspores undergo meiosis
and eventually produce pollen
grains.

Female cone (ovulate cone)
Produce megaspores.
Megaspores undergo meiosis
and eventually produce the
archegonia.
Male plant (male cone)
Female plant (female cone)
Wood of pine trees contains tracheids only.
Pollen cones are simple
L-section of a male cone
Pollen of pine with air bladder
Germinating pine pollen consists of air bladder, generative
cell, tube cell and nucleus
Seed cones (female) are compound cones
L-section of a female cone
Ovuliferous scale has two ovules, each with
integuments and nucellus
L-section of an ovule
Embryo of pine tree
Megagametophyte
Cotyledon
Epicotyl
Hypocotyl
Radicle
Conifer
Diversity
A. Araucariaceae
B-G. Cupressaceae
H. Podocarpaceae
I-J. Taxaceae
K-L. Pinaceae

Araucariaceae
Evergreen and scale-like
leaves
Commonly called Norkfolk
Island pine or Bunya-bunya
Cuppressaceae- the sipres
Podocarpaceae- Podocarpus
Taxaceae - Taxus
Arillate cone (fleshy ) of Taxus conifer with flat blades
source of anti-cancer drug taxol
Taxol is an anti-cancer drug
Pinaceae
Pinaceae: Pinus
Fascicle of needle-like leaves, male or staminate
cones in short branches

Pharmaceutical importance of Pinaceae
Pharmaceutical importance of Pinaceae
Gnetophyta - Gnetales
3 extant families
Thought to be sister group
Striate pollen
The only Gymnosperms with vessels
with pore-like plates
Gnetales
Gnetaceae Gnetum 28 spp.
+ monotypic Vinkiella
Gymnosperm with dicotyl-like leaves

Ovules of Gnetum are not borne in cones
Ephedraceae - Ephedra
(ca. 65 spp.) Mormon-Tea
Ma huang, Joint fir
Desert shrub
Photosynthetic stems
Reduced scale-like leaves
Source of drugs Ephedrine
a neurostimulant

Microsporangiate cones look like
staminate imperfect inflorescence
The naked ovules of Ephedra reveal that
they are gymnosperm
Ephedrine is an alkaloid extracted from
Ephedra
Welwitschia mirabilis is an enigmatic
desert dweller
Welwitschia mirabilis has two strap-
shaped blades with basal meristem
Corm-like stem
Microsporangiate strobili of Welwitschia
megasporangiate strobili of Welwitschia
Welwitschia
mirabilis
Native to Namibia, SW Africa
With persistent basal meristem
for the elongation of two strap-
shaped blades, underground
corm-like stem