lycopods+conifers

• Types of arrangements of vascular tissues:

  • Protostele: solid vascular tissue without a central pith or leaf gaps
  • Siphonostele: cylindrical vascular tissue surrounding the central pith and consisting of leaf gaps
• Protostele is the most primitive type of stele
• Siphonostele is a modification of the protostele
• Homosporous means producing spores of one kind that is not differentiated by sex
• Homosporous plant develops into a bisexual gametophyte which produces both male and female gametes
• Polydiophyta:

  • Fully green, vascular plants
  • Highest in lower higher plants
  • No seeds, no flowers
• Spores of horsetails:

  • Borne under sporangiophores in strobili
  • Have elaters for shooting mature spores
  • Are hygroscopic and need humidity
• Equisetophyta example: Field horsetail
• Fern sporangia are clutched in sori and on the underside of the fertile leaf
• Reproduction of ferns involves two stages, sporophyte and gametophyte:

  • Spore Dispersal: Sporangia release spores
  • Spore Germination: Spores become prothallus/gametophyte
  • Gametophyte Development: Prothallus produces male (antheridia) and female (archegonia) reproductive structures
  • Fertilization: Sperm swim to eggs in water, forming a zygote
  • Sporophyte Development: Zygote becomes a new fern plant
  • Spore Production: Sporangia produce spores through meiosis
• Seed plants adaptations for reproduction without water:

  • Can survive from one growing season to another
  • Next generation has food reserves
  • No need for water in pollination and fertilization
• Cycadophyta characteristics:

  • Mesozoic plants
  • Stout and woody trunk with a crown of large, hard and stiff evergreen leaves (pinnate)
  • Dioecious
• Ginkgophyta:

  • Non-flowering living fossil
  • Typical leaves like Maidenhair tree
• Pinophyta characteristics:

  • Gymnosperms cone-bearing seed plants (naked seeds)
  • Woody plants with secondary growth
  • Vascular tissues
• Adaptations of gymnosperms for dry environments:

  • Vascular tissue
  • Secondary growth
  • Tend to conserve water
  • Roots to anchor the plant
  • Cuticle to prevent water loss
  • Leaves in form of needles
• Evolutionary innovation that allowed gymnosperms to be more successful on land than ferns: seed production, smaller gametophyte, pollen and seeds, diversity of cone
• Reproduction in gymnosperms:

  • Leafy green sporophyte generates cones with male and female gametophytes
• Male and female cones differences:

  • Female cones are bigger, woody, have scales and naked seeds
  • Male cones are soft, contain pollen
  • Wind drives pollination (anemophily), winged seeds
• Ovulate cone is the female cone that contains ovules which, when fertilized by pollen, become seeds
• Life cycle of a conifer:

  • 1st year: tiny female cones, pollination, dormant green core, pollen grains absorbed
  • 2nd year: fertilization, winged seeds drift away
• Silver fir in Slovak and ecology:

  • Jedľa biela, mostly in Europe, Balkan Peninsula, protected by law
• Abies alba description:

  • Large evergreen conifers, 40-50m, needle-like leaves with 2 greenish-white bands, not sharp
  • Uses: X-mas trees, oil for perfumes, bath products, branches for spruce beer
• Douglas fir description:

  • Medium-sized evergreen conifers, needle-like leaves with 2 white bands, soft cones grow downwards
  • Uses: ornamental value, forestry
• European yew description:

  • Medium evergreen conifers, 10-20m, needle-like leaves, dark needles, not sharp
  • Uses: precursors of chemotherapy
• Blue spruce uses:

  • Infusion of needles used to treat cold and settle the stomach
  • Externally used for rheumatic pains
• • Blue spruce description
  • evergreen conifeurs, med size, needle like leaves,flattened, has svaly grey bark on the trunk with yellowish - brown branches, waxy gray-green leaves - very sharp
• Lycopodiophyta is a phylum of lower higher plants
• Lycopodiophyta is ancient, existing alongside dinosaurs
• Lycopodiophyta can live without an aquatic environment
• Lycopods reproduce asexually through rhizomes, which can survive many years and are perennial
• Lycopods shed spores in strobilus vytrusnice
• Lycopods exhibit alternation of generations, where the sporophyte stage produces spores that grow into gametophyte stages, producing sperm and eggs that fuse into new sporophytes
• Seedless vascular plants are not completely adapted to life on land due to water-dependent reproduction and the lack of true seeds
• Examples of lycopods include clubmosses, quillworts, and spike mosses
• Equisetophyta are primitive vascular plants found in wet areas
• In ferns, the sterile part that grows first is the gametophyte
• Ferns reproduce via spores
• The violin-like structures in ferns are fiddleheads that expand into fronds
• The term for uncurling the leaf in ferns is vernation
• In Polydiophyta, the vegetative leaf is called trophophyll and the fertile leaf is called sporophyll