This document discusses seedless vascular plants (Pteridophyta), including whisk ferns, club mosses, horsetails, and ferns. It provides details on their characteristics and taxonomy. The major points covered are:
- Whisk ferns have photosynthetic, forked stems but no leaves or roots, and were more diverse in the past.
- Club mosses have upright stems with leaves and ground-hugging roots, with sporophylls clustered in cone-like strobili. Some are homosporous and some heterosporous.
- Horsetails have hollow, jointed stems and were once used as scouring rushes. They reproduce via sp
6. Major Taxonomic Groups
• Psilophyta
Whisk Ferns
- Free-living sporophyte
and gametophyte
- No leaves or roots
- Only one known genus
survives today, but they
were much more
diverse in the past
- NOTE despite the
name, they are not true
ferns
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Whisk Ferns
• Have a
photosynthetic, aerial
forked stem
• Looks like a small,
green twiggy bush
• Have TRUE stems,
but NO leaves or roots
• Only two living genera
Stems with spore
cases
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Whisk Ferns
• Have rootlike stems
structures called
Rhizomes to anchor
(can’t absorb water)
• May asexually
reproduce from
rhizomes
• Sexually reproduce by
spores made in
Sporangia (spore
cases on the stems)
Sporangia
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13. Phylum
Lycophyta
• grow on tropical trees as epiphytes
• they are NOT parasites
• the sporophytes have upright stems with many small leaves plus
ground-hugging stems that produce branching roots
• in the club mosses – the sporophylls are clustered into club-
shaped cones = strobili
homosporous
• spike mosses and quillworts - heterosporous
Isoetes
gunnii,
a quillwort
Diphasiastrum tristachyum, a club moss
Strobili
(clusters of
sporophyllis)
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Club Moss
• Commonly called ground
pines
• Bushy, tree like branches
above, but unbranched at the
base
• Have deep growing root like
Rhizomes
• Live in moist woods and
clearings
• Small leaves with single
unbranched vein
Leaves
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Club Moss
• Sporophylls (spore
cases) are found in the
axils of leaves
• Form cone shaped
structures called
Strobili
• May be homosporous
(make one type of
spore) or
heterosporous (make 2
types of spores)
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Club Moss Spores
• Genus Lycopodium is
homosporous
• Contain chemicals that
explode & burn quickly
• Yellowish powdery spores
used in fireworks and
explosives
Spore
Burning Lycopodium powderSulisetijono
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Other Uses for Club Moss
• Sometimes boiled in water to produce
a medicinal tea or an eye wash
• Ground pines, green all winter, are
used in Christmas decorations
• Ancestors of modern club mosses
helped form coal during the
carboniferous period
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23. Phylum Pterophyta
• whisk ferns
dichotomously branching stems but no roots
stems have scale-like outgrowths that lack vascular tissue
stems may have evolved as reduced leaves
homosporous with spores that give rise to bisexual gametophytes that
grow underground
considered to be living fossils due to their resemblance to fossils of ancient
vascular plants
• horsetails
named for the brushy appearance of the stems
arthrophytes – “jointed plants”
rings of small leaves or branches can emerge from each joint
stem is the main photosynthetic organ
• ferns
ferns have megaphylls
sporophylls typically have horizontal stems that give rise to large leaves
called fronds divided into leaflets
frond grows as the fiddlehead
almost all species are homosporous
gametophyte shrivels and dies after the young sporophyte detaches itself
the sporangia are stalked with spring-like devices that disperse the spores
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24. Major Taxonomic Groups
• Lycophyta
Club Mosses
- Free-living sporophyte
and gametophytes
- True roots, stems, and
leaves
- 300MYA, these were
the dominant flora with
large, expansive
swamp-forests of
lycopods.
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44. Major Taxonomic Groups
• Sphenophyta
Horsetails
- Free-living sporophyte
and gametophyte
- Circular, ribbed stems
with whorled leaves
- Again, much more
diverse in the past
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Horsetails
• Only one living (extant)
species - Equisteum
• Also called scouring
rushes
• Hollow, jointed Stems
contain silica & were once
used to scrub pots
• Photosynthetic aerial stem
• Underground Rhizomes
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Horsetails
• Reproduce by spores at the
tips of branches
• In prehistoric times, grew as
tall as trees
• Found in wetlands
• Stems with sunken stomata to
save water
• Some spores have elaters,
cells that act as moisture-
sensitive springs, assisting
spore dispersal
Stem with a
whorl (at each
node) of
branches and
dark-tipped
leaves
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Uses for Horsetails
• Use to fight plant fungi
• Used in some mouthwashes to cure
mouth ulcers
• Used as diuretics to eliminate
excess water (weight loss products)
• Toxic to animals (sheep, cattle,
horses)
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