THE KINGDOM PLANTAE

 Terrestrial communities founded by plants transformed the biosphere.

 For example: that humans would not exist had it not been for the chain of evolutionary
events that began when certain descendants of green algae first colonized land.
 The evolutionary history of plant kingdom is a story of adaption to changing terrestrial
conditions.
Characteristics of Plants in contrast to algae:
 All plants are multicellular, eukaryotes that are photosynthetic autotrophs.
 However not all organisms with these characteristics are plants; such characteristics also
apply to some algae.
 Plant cells have walls made mostly of cellulose, and plants store their surplus
carbohydrate in the form of starch.
 Plants share even more characteristics with their closest algal relatives, the green algae.
For example, the chloroplasts of both green algae and plants contain chlorophyll-b as an
accessory photosynthetic pigment.
 Remember, all photosynthetic eukaryotes use chlorophyll-a as the pigment directly
involved in conversion of light energy to chemical energy.
Difference in Plants and multicellular Algae:
 First, plant as we are defining them are nearly all terrestrial organisms, although some
plants, such as water lilies, have returned secondarily to water during their evolution.
 Living on land possess very different problems from living in water, and it is a set of
structural, chemical and reproductive adaptations for terrestrial living that distinguishes
plants from algae.
Problems on living on Terrestrial Habitat:
 In terrestrial habitats, the resources a photosynthetic organism needs are found in two
very different places: light and carbon dioxide are mainly available above the ground,
while water and mineral nutrients are found mainly in the soil.
 Thus the complex bodies of plants show varying degrees of structural specialization into
subterranean and aerial organs—roots and leaf-bearing shoots respectively.
 In most plants, exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen between the atmosphere and
photosynthetic interior of leaves occurs via stomata, microscopic pores through the
surfaces of leaves.

Adaptations for Terrestrial life:

 Terrestrial adaptations of plant structure are complemented by chemical adaptations. For
example, aerial parts of most plants, such as leaves, have a waxy coating called a cuticle,
which helps to prevent excessive water loss, a major problem on land.
 Fact: plants are multicellular photo synthesizers that are adapted to living on land. All
plants protect their embryos from desiccation.
 The waxes of cuticle are examples of secondary products, so named because they are not
produced by the primary, mainstream metabolic pathways common to all plant.
 Another example of secondary products as terrestrial adaptations is lignin, a substance
that hardens the cell walls of “woody” tissues in many plants.
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 A secondary product particularly important in the evolutionary move of plants onto land
was sporopollenin, a polymer that is resistant to almost all kinds of environmental
damage.
 In fact, the fossil record of plants is due mainly to the durability of sporopollenin, lignin
and the materials of cuticles (waxes).
Reproductive Adaptations of plants in contrast to green algae:
 The move onto land paralleled a new mode of reproduction.
 In contrast to the environment in which algae reproduce, gametes now had to be
dispersed in a non-aquatic environment, and embryos, like mature body structures, had to
be protected against desiccation.
 Early plants produced their gametes within gametangia, organs having protective jackets
of sterile (non-reproductive) cells that prevent the delicate gametes from drying out
during their development.
 The egg is fertilized within the female gametangium, where the zygote develops into an
embryo that is retained and nourished for some time within the jacket of protective cells.
In contrast, developing that plants are sometimes referred to as embryophyes, a term that
emphasizes a key adaptation that contributed to success on land.
Plants Now:
 Plants now may be defined as multicellular eukaryotes that are photosynthetic
autotrophs (chlorophyllus) within cell wall primarily made up of cellulose, exhibiting
heteromorphic alternation of generation and zygote retained and develops into
embryo.

Classification of Plants:
 Plant biologists use the term division for the major plant groups within the plant
kingdom.
 This taxonomic category corresponds to phylum, the highest unit of classification within
the animal kingdom.
 Divisions, like phyla, are further subdivided into classes, orders, families and genera.
 The Classification scheme used in this book recognizes two main groups called
bryophyte (non-vascular plants) and tracheophyta (vascular plants).
 THE KINGDOM PLANTAE

 This division is based on presence or absence of vascular tissues.

BRYOPHYTES (Bryon = a moss; Phyton = Plant)

 Bryophytes are non-vascular plants.
 They show heteromorphic alternation of generation.
 Their gametophytes are dominant.
 They are amphibious in nature.
Gametophytes:
 Gametophytes are chlorophyllus, photosynthetic autotrophs.
 Body is thalloid or differentiated in rhizoids, pseudo stem and leaves.
Sporophytes:
 Sporophytes are semi-parasite on gametophytes.
 Body is differentiated into foot, seta and capsule.

Plants

Disivsion I: Divison II:

Bryophyta (non- Tracheophyta
vascular plants) (vascular plants)

Subdivision
Class Hepaticae
Psilopsida
(liverworts)
(Psilopsids)

Subdivision
Class Musci
Lycopsida (club
(Mosses)
mosses)

Class Subdivision
Anthocerotae Sphenopsida
(hornworts) (horse tails)

Subdivision
Pteropsida
(ferns)

Subdivision
Spermopsida
(Seeed Plants)
General Characteristics and Amphibious nature
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 The non-vascular plants: liverworts, hornworts and mosses are grouped together in a
single division bryophyte (Gr, Bryon, “moss”).
Key Adaptation of Bryophytes for land: (embryonic condition)
o Bryophytes display a key adaptation that first made the move onto land possible: the
embryonic condition.
o Their gametes develop within gametangia.
o The male gametangium, known as an antheridium, produces flagellated sperm.
o The female gametangium, or archegonium, one egg (ovum) is produced.
o Fertilization, the egg is fertilized within the archegonium, and the zygote develops in
an embryo within the protective jacket of the female organ.
Water Need for fertilization:
o Even with their protected embryos, bryophytes are not totally liberated from their
ancestral aquatic habitat.
o First of all, these plants need water to reproduce.
o Their sperm, like those of most green algae, are flagellated and must swim from the
antheridium to the archegonium to fertilize the egg.
o For many bryophyte species, a film of rainwater or dew is sufficient for fertilization
to occur.
 Bryophytes lack the lignin-fortified tissue required to support tall plants on land.
 Although they may sprawl horizontally as mats over a large surface, bryophytes always
have a low profile.
 Most are only 1-2 cm in height, and even the largest are usually less than 20 cm tall.
 There is regular heteromorphic alternation of generation with gametophyte is the
dominant generation in the life cycles of bryophytes.
 Factoid:
o The bryophytes include the inconspicuous liverworts, and mosses, plants that
have a dominant gametophytes.
o Bryophytes lack vascular tissue and fertilization requires an outside source of
moisture.
o Windblown spores disperse the species.
Adaptation to Land habitat:
 The first evidence that plants had invaded the land from the sea is found in fossils of
Silurian/Devonian periods.
 All the biologist agree that the land plants and animals evolved from aquatic ancestors.
 The conquest of the land must have been a long and difficult process.
 The plants had to become adopted by developing new structures.
 Life for aquatic organisms is an easy life.
 Water is necessary for the growth of all living things and there is little danger in the sea
of any lack of water.
 Carbon containing compounds, so essential for autotrophs, are present abundantly in
solution.
 The autotrophs, in turn, provide a continuous supply of oxygen for all the living
organisms in the sea.
 The temperature in seas does not fluctuate as much as on land.
 THE KINGDOM PLANTAE

 Hence, the aquatic environment is more uniform and better supplied with some of the
necessities of life than in rigorous land environment.
Problems faced by plants:
1) Obtaining water.
2) Conserving water.
3) Absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for photosynthesis.
Solution of these Problems:
To solve these problems, land invading plants adopted themselves first to amphibious-habitat
and later developed a complete terrestrial form of life. The amphibious form of land plants
includes all the bryophytes. We will consider the following adaptive characters exhibited by
them.
1) Rhizoids for water absorption.
2) Conservation of water.
3) Absorption of CO2.
4) Heterogamy.
5) Protection of reproductive cells.
6) Formation of embryos.
1. Rhizoid for water absorption:
o The study of Marchantia thallus and other bryophytes show that they have rhizoids
for water absorption.
o Rhizoids are long, filamentous extensions of the cells of the lower surface of the
thallus.
o They are hair like structure.
o They greatly increase the surface for absorption of water from the soil.
2. Conservation of water:
o The plant-body called thallus of all bryophytes is multilayered.
o Marchantia is one of the common liverworts.
Cross-Section of this organism
o Cross section of this organism shows that its thallus is many cell thick of the
hundreds of thousands of cells comprising the thallus, only a small percentage
have surfaces directly exposed to drying effects of the atmosphere.
o Moreover, the outer and uppermost layer of cells is covered with cuticle.
Cuticle
o The outer and uppermost layer of cells is covered with cuticle.
o Cuticle is non-cellular layer of wax-like substance cutin.
o Cuticle is very efficient in reducing the rate of evaporation.
o It is also found in the stem and leaves of highly evolved plants.
3. Absorption of CO2
o Land plants need an efficient means for the exchange of gases with the environment
in contrast to aquatic plants.
o Aquatic plants exchange gases dissolved in water.
o The upper surface of the Marchantia thallus is provided with a number of aerating
pores.
o Each pore leads inside into an air-chamber.
o This is partially filled with branching filaments of photosynthetic cells.
 THE KINGDOM PLANTAE

o Carbon dioxide enters through pores and absorbed by wet surface of the
photosynthetic cells in the air chambers and diffuses into the cytoplasm.
o Because of branching nature of the inner structure of the thallus, the cells present a
very large surface area available for the absorption of carbon dioxide.
o No doubt, at the same time, evaporation of water can occur from the wet surfaces of
these cells.
o To replace this evaporating water, Marchantia has special structures called rhizoids as
already mentioned.
4. Heterogamy
o Heterogamy is the most successful kind of reproduction.
o It is evolved in bryophytes.
o It is defined as production of two different types of gametes, one is male (motile) and
the other is female (non-motile) full of stored food.
5. Protection of reproductive cells
o The land environment requires special protection for the reproductive cells.
o In amphibious plants, reproductive cells are very well protected as in Funaria (moss
plant).
o The male gamete, (sperm) is produced in multicellular reproductive sex organs called
antheridia.
o The female gamete, (ovum) is produced in multicellular reproductive sex organs
called archegonia.
o These organs are present at the apices of leafy shots.
o Moreover, together with these organs, hair like structures called paraphyses are also
present which help to prevent drying of the sex organs.
6. Formation of embryos
o Embryo formation in amphibious plants is of universal occurrence.
o The fertilized egg called oospore (zygote) is formed inside the archegonium.
o An embryo develops from the oospore as it divides, still inside the protective
coverings of the archegonia.
o Thus the coverings formed by the female organ protect the growing embryo from
drying out and from mechanical injury.

THE THREE CLASSES OF BRYOPHYES

1) Hepaticae (Liverworts):
 They have been named so because thallus has lobed structure resembling the lobes of
liver.
 Also because of the plants were once used to treat complaints of the liver.
 Hepaticae have dorsoventrally differentiated, externally simple gametophytes.
 Sex organs are always formed from superficial cells on the dorsal side.
 Sometimes they may develop on special branches called antheriodiophores and
archegoniophores.
 Sporophytes are simple having foot, seta and capsule.
 Examples include: Ricca, Marchantia and Porella.
2) Musci (Mosses):
 The most familiar bryophytes are mosses.
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 In contrast to other bryophytes they grow equally well in fairly dry places.
 However, water is essential in the reproduction.
 A mat of moss actually consists of many plants growing in a tight pack, helping to
hold one and another.
 Each plant of the mat grips the substratum with rhizoids.
Gametophyte
o The musci have a gametophyte with transitory (short-timed) prostrate stage called
protonema. (Prostrate: flat, helpless, defenseless).
o It bears erect sexual branches which continue to grow has independent plants after
degeneration of protonema.
o The sexual branches are differentiated into pseudo stem and leaves.
Sporophyte
o The sporophyte consists of foot, seta and capsule.
o Capsule has photosynthetic cells.
 Examples include: Funaria, Sphagnum etc.
3) Anthocerotae (Hornworts):
 This is the most advanced group.
 Hornworts resembles liverworts but are distinguished by their sporophytes, which are
elongated capsules that grow like horns from the matlike gametophyte.
 E.g. anthoceros.
 The sporophyte shows many advanced characters suited for land environment.
 The sporophyte has stomata and chloroplasts and can undergo photosynthesis.
 Furthermore, it has meristem which keeps on adding cells.
 Due to these characters, sporophyte can continue to survive even often the death of
gametophyte.

LIFE CYCLE OF BRYOPHYTE (MOSS):

 All bryophytes show heteromorphic alternation of generation with gametophytes as
dominant generation including Funaria hygrometrica (a moss).
Gametophyte Generation (Sexual)
 The gametophyte is haploid consisting rhizoids, pseudo-stem and leaves.
 Gametophytes may be unisexual or bisexual depending upon whatever stem is branched
or unbranched.
 The sex organs called antheridia (male) and archegonia (female) develop at the tips of
stem which are always diocous having either male or female sex organs.
 There is protoandry because antheridia mature earlier and liberate their anthrozoids,
which start swimming with the help of their flagella in dew or rainwater.
 When archegonia mature, they have single ovum in the venter and few neck canal cells in
the neck.
 Swimming sperms are attached by scent of sugar can secreted by mature archegonium
but a single antherozoid fuses with the ovum to from diploid (2n) oospore (zygote).
 This is retained within archegonium and form an embryo (2n).
 This embryo undergo repeated mitotic-divisions to form sporogonium (a sporophyte)
which is diploid.
Sporophyte Generation (Asexual)
 Sporophyte consists of foot, seta and capsule.
 THE KINGDOM PLANTAE

 Within capsule spore mother cells are present.

 Each spore mother cell divides by meiosis to form four haploid spores.
 Each spore germinates into a filamentous body called protonema.
 Later on gametophyte (haploid) develops from protonema to complete life cycle.

TRACHEOPHYES – Tracheophyta (The Vascular Plant)

Land Adaptations & contrast with Bryophytes:

Though most bryophytes live on land, in a sense they are not fully terrestrial.
The tracheophytes in contrast, have evolved a host of adaptations to the terrestrial
environment that have enabled them to invade all the most inhospitable land habitats.

Subdivision Psilopsida
(psilopsida)

Subdivision Lycopsida (club

mosses)

Major gropus of
Subdivsion Sphenopsida
Bryophytes (Vascular
(horse tails)
Plants):

Subdivision Pteropsida
(ferns)
The Gymnosperms (Naked
Seed)
Subdivison Spermopsida
(seed plants)
The Angiosperms (Closed
Seed)

In the process they have diverged sufficiently from the one another.

Classification of Tracheophytes & its groups:

Pteridophyta: (Pteridos = pteris like; phyton = plant).
 They are non-flowering plants.
 The subdivision psilopsida, lycopsida, sphenopsida and pteridopsida are placed under
group pteridophyta.
Spermopsids: (Sperma = seed; phyton = plant).
 They are flowering plants.
 They all have seeds.
 Spermopsida are further divided into gymnosperms (seed naked) and angiosperms
(seed closed).
 THE KINGDOM PLANTAE

Characteristics of Tracheophytes:
 All members of Tracheophytes (with a few minor exceptions) possess four important
characters;

i. A protective layer of sterile jacket cells around the reproductive organs.

ii. Multicellular embryos retained within the archegonia.
iii. Cuticles on the aerial parts.
iv. Xylem.

 All the four characters are fundamental adaptations for a terrestrial existence.
 Many other such adaptations, absent in the earlier tracheophytes, appear in more
advanced member of the division.
 A history of the evolution of these adaptations is a history of the increasingly extensive
exploitation of the terrestrial environment by vascular plants.
 Let us briefly trace the history of adaptation of life on land.

1. Psilopsida:
History
 The oldest undisputed fossil representatives of the vascular plants can be placed late
in the Silurian period, which means that they lived more than 395 million years ago,
they are classified in the Psilopsida.
Extinction
 Most of this group’s members lived during the Devonian period and then became
extinct for example Rhynia.
Living
 Two living genera Psilotum and Tmespteris, have traditionally been regarded as
members of this ancient group.
According to D.W. Bierhorst
 But the recent evidence from, embryology and morphology of gametophytes D.W.
Bierhorst of the University of Massachusetts has pointed out that they actually be
very primitive ferns.
Prediction
 If this is so, then Psilopsida contains only extinct species.
 Whether Psilotum and Mesipteris (Tmespteris) should be retained in Psilopsida
despite the differences between them and the ancient members of that class, from
which they are separate by about 400 million year with no intervening fossils.
Psilopsid sporophyte
 The Psilopsid sporophytes are simple.
 They are dichotomously branching plants.
 They lack leaves & roots.
 They have underground stems that bear unicellular rhizoids similar to root hairs.
 The aerial stems are green and carry out photosynthesis.
 There is no cambium and hence no secondary growth.
 Sporangia develop at the tips of some of the aerial branches.
 THE KINGDOM PLANTAE

 Within the sporangia meiosis produces haploid spores.

Rhynia Illustrating Vascular Organization:
 One of most primitive vascular plant is Rhynia, which is pteridophyte.
 Rhynia is an extinct-genus.
 It was named often the village Rhynia of Scotland, where the fossils of Rhynia were
discovered.
 It belongs to Devonian period which started about 400 million years ago.
 The fossils of this plant are so well preserved that the stomata are still intact.
Characters of Rhynia (Morphology)
 The plant—body (sporophyte) of Rhynia was simple.
 It consisted of slender, dichotomously branched creeping rhizome, bearing erect,
dichotomously branched aerial stem.
 Instead of roots, rhizoids were given out from rhizome.
 The aerial branches were leaf-less having terminal fusiform naked sporangia.
Characters of Rhynia (Anatomy)
 The internal structure of branches show a solid central core of vascular tissue
surrounded by cortex.
 The outermost layer is epidermis having stomata.
 The vascular tissue is differentiated into centrally placed xylem and surrounded by
phloem.
Reproduction/Life Cycle of Psilotum & Mesipteris
 The spores give rise to minute subterranean gametophytes.
 Each gametophyte bears archegonia and antheridia and thus produces both eggs and
sperm.
 When the gametes unite in fertilization, they form diploid zygotes that develop into
the sporophyte plants described above, thus completing life cycle.
Note:
 Although the diploid sporophyte (stages) is more prominent in the modern genera and
hence may be said to be dominant, the haploid gametophyte (stage 2) is still relatively
large. E.g. Psilophyton/Psilotum (fossil).
EVOLUTION OF THE LEAF
The leaf is the most important organ of green plant because of its photosynthetic activity.
It is very interesting to trace the origin of leaf in the green plants.
Evolution of one-veined leaf (microphyllous)
Theory—1 - Enation
 It can be explained by assuming that a thorn like outgrowth (enation) emerged on the
surface of the naked stem.
 With an increase in size of the outgrowth, the vascular tissues were also formed for
the supply of water and support to the leaf.
Theory—2
 It can be explained by assuming that a single veined originated by a reduction in size
of a part of the leafless branching system of the primitive vascular plant.
 This is how the leaf of Lycopodium (club mosses) and equisetum (horse tail) came
into existence.
Evolution of many-veined leaf (megaphyllous)
 They originated much later.
 THE KINGDOM PLANTAE

 These are the evolutionary modifications of forked branching system in the primitive
plants.
Step—1
 The first step in the evolution of this leaf was the restriction of forked branches to a
single plane.
 The branching system became flat.
Step—2
 The next step in the evolution was filling the space between the branching and the
vascular tissue.
 The leaf so formed looked like the web of a duck.

2. Lycopsida (The Club Mosses)

History
 The first representative of lycopsida appeared in the middle of the Devonian period.
 Almost 10 million years after first psilopsida.
 During the late Devonian and carboniferous periods they were among the dominant
plants on land.
 Some of them were very large trees that formed the earth’s first forests.
Extinction
 Toward the end of the Paleozoic era, however this group was displaced by more
advanced types of vascular plants.
Alive
 Only five genera are alive today.
 Two of these, Selaginella and Lycopodium (often called running or ground pine), are
common in parts of the Pakistan.
Characteristics
 Unlike psilopsida, lycopsids have true roots.
 It is generally supposed that these arose from branches of the ancestral algae that
penetrated the soil and branched underground.
 Lycopsids have true leaves, which are thought to have arisen as simple scale like
outgrowth (emergence) from the outer tissue of the stem.
Sporophylls
 Certain of the leaves that become specialized for reproduction bear sporangia on their
surfaces, such reproductive (fertile) leaves are called Sporophylls.
 In many lycopsids the sporophylls are congregated on a short length of stem and form
a cone like structure (strobilus).
 The cone is rather club-shaped; hence the name “Club Mosses” for the lycopsids,
though lycopsids are not related to the true mosses, which are bryophytes.
Reproduction
In Lycopodium
o The spores produced by Lycopodium are all alike (homosporous).
o Each can give rise to a gametophyte that will bear both archegonia and antheridia.
In Selaginella
o Selaginella have two types of sporangia, which produced different kinds of
spores.
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o One type of sporangium produces very large spores called megaspores, which
develop in female gametophyte bearing archegonia;
o The other type produces small spores called microspores, which develop into
male gametophytes bearing antheridia.

Homosporous
 Plants like Lycopodium that produce only one kind of spore, and hence they have
only one kind of gametophyte that bears both male and female organs, are said to be
homosporous.
Heterosporous
 Plants like Selaginella that produces both megaspores (female) and microspores
(male) i.e. in which sexes are separate in the gametophyte generation are said to be
heterosporous.
EVOLUTION OF SEED
We have studies in Selaginella that two types of spores are present. One is smaller in size
called microspore and the other bigger in size called megaspore. This type of condition is
known as heterospory.
These spores have different functions to perform instead of growing into a gametophyte
of similar structure, the heterosporous plant produce two different gametophytes.
Microspore grows into a sperm forming gametophyte.
The other kind megaspore, grows into egg forming gametophyte.
The two kind of spores are formed in two different kinds of sporangia.
These like sporangia of club-mosses, horse tails and ferns have become protected as a
result of evolution of various enveloping structures.
The carboniferous era reveals some fern like plants that bore scale like structures.
Each of their sporangia containing one or more spores was nearly surrounded by
outgrowth from the sporophyte.
These outgrowth were little branch like structures which during evolution have become
fused as an envelope or integument around the sporangia.

In contrast with other green plants, in the seed plants megaspores are retained and
protected inside the integumented sporangia
They develop into active female gametophyte protected by integument.
There are three steps in the evolution of seed:
Step—1
o Origin of heterospory.
Step—2
o Development of integument for protection of mega sporangia.
Step—3
o Retention of the mature megaspores in the sporangia to develop female gametophyte.
The examination of immature seed reveals that integument is not only a protective
covering but also a food supplying organ to the female gametophyte.
The development of seed has given the vascular plants better adaptation to their
environment.
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3. Sphenopsida (The Horse Tails)

History
 The sphenopsids first appeared in the fossil record late in the Devonian period.
 They became major components of the land flora during the Carboniferous period and
then declined.
Living
 Members of the one living genus, Equisetum are commonly called horse tails.
Characters
 Though most of these are small (less than one meter).
 Some of the ancient sphenopsids were large trees.
Economic Importance
 Much of the coal we use today was formed from the dead bodies of these plants.
Morphology & Anatomy
 Like the lycopsids, sphenopsids possess true roots, stems and leaves.
 The stems are hollow and are jointed.
 Whorls of leaves occur at each joint.
 Many of the extinct sphenopsids had cambium and hence secondary growth, but the
modern species do not.
 Spores are borne in terminal cones (Strobili).
 In Equisetum all spores are alike (homosporous) and give rise to small gametophytes
that bear both archegonia and antheridia (sexes are not separate).
 E.g. Sphenophyllum.
4. Pteropsdia (The Ferns)
History
 In the opinion of many biologists, the ferns evolved from the psilopsida.
 They first appeared in the Devonian period and greatly increased in importance
during the carboniferous period.
Extinct
 Their decline late in the Paleozoic era was much less severe than that of the
Psilopsids, Lycopsids and Sphenopsids.
Alive
 There are many modern species belonging to this group.
Morphology and Characteristics
 The ferns are fairly advanced with a very well developed vascular system and with
true roots, stems and leaves.
Leaves
 The leaves are thought to have arisen in another way than those of the lycopsids.
 Instead of emergence, they are probably flattened and web branched stems, i.e. a
group of small terminal branches probably became arranged in the same plane and the
interstices filled with tissue.
 Such leaves are large and provide a much greater surface area for photosynthesis,
than the emergence leaves of the lycopsids and sphenopsids.
 The leaves of ferns are sometimes simple.
 But more often they are compound being divided into numerous leaflets.
 THE KINGDOM PLANTAE

 In a few ferns (e.g. the large trees fern of the tropics), the stem is upright, forming a
trunk.
 But in most modern ferns, especially those of temperate regions, the stems are
prostrate on or in the soil, and the large leaves are the only parts normally seen.

Sporophyte
 The large leafy fern plant is the diploid sporophyte phase.
 Spores are produced in sporangia located in clusters on the underside of some leaves
(sporophylls).
 In some species the sporophylls are relatively little modified and look like the non-
reproductive leaves.
 In other species the sporophylls look quite different from vegetative leaves.
 Sometimes they are so highly modified that they do not look like leaves at all forming
spike like structures instead.
Gametophyte
 Most modern ferns are homosporous.
 After germination, the spores develop into gametophytes.
 Gametophytes bear both archegonia and antheridia.
 Gametophytes are tiny (less than one centimeter wide), and often less heart-shaped.
Still Less Adapted
 In some respect, the ferns (and also the three primitive groups of vascular plants
discussed above) are not better adapted for life on land than the bryophytes.
 Their vascularized sporophytes can live in drier places and grow bigger, but for a
number of reasons:
o Their non-vascularized free-living gametophytes can survive only in dry moist
places.
o Their sperms are flagellated and must have a film of moisture through which
to swim to the egg cells in archegonia.
o Young sporophyte develops directly from the zygote without passing through
any protected seed stage.
 These plants are most successful only in those habitats where there is at least a
moderate amount of moisture. E.g. Pteris.

 Factoid: in the non-seeded vascular plants, such as ferns, there is a dominant vascular
sporophyte, which produces windblown spores. These plants have an independent
non-vascular gametophyte, and flagellated sperm swim in external water to reach the
egg.

Life cycle of a fern:

The life cycle of fern (Adiantum) or dryopteris shows heteromorphic alternation of
generation in which sporophytic-phase is dominant.
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All ferns are homosporous producing single types of spores.

Sporophytic Generation
The sporophyte (2n) which is diploid, consists of adventitious roots, underground
rhizome and pinnately compound leaves.
Reproduction takes place by means of haploid-spores formed from spore-mother cells
after meiosis inside sporangium.
A number of sporangia develop inside single sorus.
The sori (plural of sorus) are green but when ripe, they become dark brown.
The leaves of bearing sori are called sporophylls.
Each sporangium consists of a stalk called sporangiophore and a biconvex capsule
consisting of annulus and stomium.
The annular cells are thickened whereas stomial cells are thin-walled.
Within sporangium spore mother cells are present.
Each spore mother cell divided by meiosis to form four haploid spores.
The spores are liberated through stomium.
Gametophyic Generation
Each spore on germination gives rise to miniature bisexual gametophyte called
prothallus.
Prothallus is independent autotrophic, heart-shaped, dorsoventrally flattened lying
prostrate on some wet substratum.
It is fixed to soil with the help of rhizoid which absorb water and nutrients.
The prothallus is monoecious (bisexual) having archegonia and antheridia on the same
prothallus.
Archegonium consists of venter with an ovum and a neck and secrete malic acid at
maturity.
Each antheridium produces a number of anthrozoids (sperms).
A number of sperms, by making chemotactic movement in water reach to the
archegonium.
Only one sperm fuses with ovum to form oospore (zygote) which is diploid.
Young sporophyte develops from the oospore.
In the meantime, prothallus degenerate, in this way life cycle is completed.

5. Spermopsida (The Seed Plants)

History
 They first appeared in the late Devonian, and in the carboniferous they soon replaced
the lycopsids and sphenopsids as the dominant land plants, a position they still hold
today.
Achievement
 The seed plants have been by far the most successful in fully exploiting the terrestrial
environment.
 The young embryo, together with a rich supply of nutrients, is enclosed within a
desiccation-resistant seed coat and can remain dormant for extended periods if
environmental conditions are unfavorable.
Gametophyte is much reduced
 In these plants the gametophytes are even more reduced than in the ferns.
 They are not photosynthetic or free-living.
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 And sperm of most modern species are not independent free-swimming flagellated
cells.
Classification
 The seed plants have traditionally been divided into two groups, the Gymnospermae
and the Angiospermae.
1) The Gymnosperms: (Gymnos = Naked; Sperma = Seed)
 They have naked seed because ovules are not covered by ovary.
History
 The first gymnosperms appeared in the fossil record in the late Devonian, some 350
million years ago.
Confusion b/w fossils of Gymnosperms and Ferns
 Many of those first seed plants had bodies that closely resembled the ferns, and
indeed for many years their fossils were thought to be fossils of ferns.
 Slowly, however, evidence accumulated that some of the “ferns” that were such
important components of the coal-age forests produced seed, not spore.
Pteridospermae (Seed Ferns)
 Today these fossil plants, usually called the seed ferns, are grouped together as the
class Pteridospermae of the subdivision Spermopsida.
 No members of this class survive today.

The Cyads & their relatives

 Ancient group.
 May have arisen from the seed ferns.
 They are generally called sago palms.
 They are fairly common in some tropical regions.
History
 These plants first appeared in the Permian period and became very abundant during
the Mesozoic era.
Difference b/w Cyads & Palms
 They had large palm like leaves;
 The palm like plants so often shown in pictures of the dinosaur age are usually cyads,
not true palms.
Declination
 The cyads declined after the rise of angiosperms in the cretaceous period.
Living
 Nine genera containing over hundred species are in existence today.
The Ginkgoae
 Widespread group of gymnosperms.
 They are now nearly extinct.
 There is only one specie living, Ginkgo or maidenhair tree.
 Often planted as a lawn tree, but almost unknown in the wild.
The Conifers
 By far the best-known group of gymnosperms is the conifers.
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 The leaves of most of these plants are small evergreen needles or scales with an
internal arrangement of tissue that differs somewhat from that in angiosperms.
Life cycle of Pinus longifolia (Pine Tree): Example of seed method of reproduction.
 The large pinus tree is the diploid sporophyte stage.
 This tree produces reproductive structures called cones.
 There are two kinds of these cones:
o Large female cones, in whose sporangia meiosis gives rise to haploid megaspores.
o Small male cones, in whose sporangia meiosis gives rise to haploid microspores.
 (Production of distinctive male & female spores, heterospory is characteristic of all seed
plants, both gymno and angiosperms.)
 In both kinds of cones the sporangia are produced by highly modified leaves
(sporophylls).
Development of female gametophyte
 Each scale (megasporophyll) of a female cone bears two sporangia on its upper (adaxial)
surface.
 Meiosis takes place inside the sporangium, producing four haploid megaspores. Three of
which soon degenerate.
 Next, the single remaining megaspore gives rise, by repeated mitotic divisions, to a
multicellular mass, which is the female gametophyte (megagametophyte).
Maturity
 When mature, the female gametophyte produces two to five tiny archegonia at its
microplyar end.
 Egg cell develop in the archegonia.
 Note that female megaspore is never released from the sporangium, and that the female
gametophyte derived from it remains embedded in the sporangium. Which is still
attached to the cone scale.
 The composite structure consisted of integument, sporangium, and female gametophyte is
called an ovule (becomes seed after fertilization).
Development of male gametophyte
 Each of many microspores produced by meiosis in a sporangium of a male cone becomes
a pollen grain.
G y m n o s p e rm s

 It develops a thick coat, which is highly resistant to loss of water.

 And wing like structure on each side, which helps its dispersal by wind.

Cyads (division
Cyadophyta)
Ginkgo (division
Ginkgophyta)
Gnetae (divsion
Gnetophyta)
Conifers (division
Coniferophyta)
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 Within the pollen grain the haploid nucleus divides mitotically, walls develop around
each daughter nucleus.
 In this manner pollen grain becomes four-celled.
 Two of the cells soon degenerate; the two cells that remain are called the generative cell
and the tube cell.
Maturity
 The mature pollen grain is released from the cone when the sporangium bursts.
 A male cone may release millions of tiny pollen grains, which may be carried many miles
(sometimes as many as a hundred) by the wind.
 Note that pollen grain are multicellular haploid structures (if four cells may be said to be
“multi”) and that they constitute the male gametophyte (microgametophyte).
Germination of Pollen Grain
 Most of the pollen grain released by a pine tree fail to reach a female cone.
 But of the few that sift down between the scales of a female cone, some land in a sticky
secretion near the open microplyar end of an ovule.
 As this secretion dries, it drawn though the micropyle, carrying the pollen grains with it.
 The arms of the integument around the micropyle and then swell and close the opening.
 When a pollen grain comes in contact with the end of the sporangium just inside the
micropyle, it develops a tubular outgrowth, the pollen tube.
 The nucleus of tube cell enter the tube, followed by the generative cell.
 The generative cell then divides, and one of the daughter cells thus produced divides
again, producing two sperm cells.
 Thus a germinated pollen grain contain four active nuclei plus two nuclei of the generated
cells; this six-nucleate condition is the male gametophyte.
Fertilization
1. The pollen tube grows down through the tissue of the sporangium and penetrates into one
of the archegonia of the female gametophyte.
2. There it discharges its sperm cells, one of which fertilized the egg cell.
3. The resulting zygote then divides mitotically to produce a tiny embryo sporophyte
consisting of a hypocotyl and an epicotyl.
4. The embryo is still contained in the female gametophyte, which is itself contained in the
sporangium.
5. Finally, the entire ovule is shed from the cone as a seed, which consists of three main
components: a seed coat derived from the old integument, stored food material derived
from the tissue of female gametophyte and an embryo.

2) The Angiosperms: (Angion = Cup or Vessel (Fruit) Sperma = Seed)

 They have their seeds enclosed in fruit because ovules are covered by ovary
History
 These plants became the dominant land flora of the Cenozoic era.
Reproductive Structures (Flower)
 The reproductive structures of angiosperms, are flowers.
 The ovules are enclosed within modified leaves called carpels.
Flowers
 Flowers may be described as compressed reproductive shoot.
 With four whorls of modified (floral) leaves called sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels.
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 Often pollination and fertilization produces seeds within fruits.

Layman definition of flower
 A flower is generally interpreted as a short length of stem with modified leaves attached
to it.
Flower Explained
 The modified leaves of a typical flower occur in four sets attached to the enlarged end
thalamus (receptacle) of the flower stalk:
(1) Sepals (calyx)
 The sepals enclose and protect all the other floral parts during the bud stage.
 They are usually small, green, and leaf like.
 But in some species they are large and brightly colored.
 All sepals together form the calyx.
(2) Petals (corolla)
 They are internal to sepals.
 They together form corolla.
 The flowers pollinated by insects, birds, or other animal, the petals are usually quite
showy.
 The flowers pollinated by wind, the petals are reduced or even absent.
(3) Stamens (androecium)
 They are just inside the circle of the corolla.
 They are male reproductive organs, (they are the micro-sporophylls that produce the
microspores).
 All the stamens together form the androecium.
Morphology of stamen
o Filament (a stalk).
o Anther (terminal ovoid pollen-producing structure).
(4) Pistil or Carpel (gynoecium)
 It is in the center of flower.
 It is female reproductive organ.
 It is mostly single but more than one pistil per flower.
 All the carpels together form gynoecium.
Morphology of pistil
o Ovary
 Ovary is present at its base.
 Each pistil consists of an ovary.
o Style
 A slender stalk.
 More than one in some species.
 It arises from the ovary.
o Stigma
 It is an enlarged apex.

 Carpel
o The pistil is derived from one or more sporophylls, which in flowers are called
carpels.
o A simple pistil or one element of a compound pistil.
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o Carpel is unit of pistil.

Complete Flower
 All four kinds of floral organs present.
 Sepals, petals, stamens and carpels are present.
Incomplete Flower
 Lack one or more of floral organs.