Plant Assignment Essay

918 Words4 Pages
Plant Assignment Pteridophytes are an ancient class of plants. Ferns do not flower, but in its place reproduce by means of spore. There are over 10000 species of ferns world wide and the Australian flora consists of more than 400 species. Ferns can be huge and woody such as tree fern: Dicksonia - medium sized, fleshy and clumping such as: Pteris or fine and delicate such as: Adiantum. Ferns are vascular plants with well-developed internal vein arrangement that help the flow of water and nutrients. Unlike the other vascular plants, such as the conifers, where the mature plant grows directly from the seed, ferns duplicate from spores and a transitional plant stage called a gametophyte. Gymnosperms are also vascular plants that have bare seeds that are not enclosed in ovaries. Their seeds are exposed on modified leaves (sporophylls) that usually form cones (strobili). Conifers dominate amongst Australia’s relict gymnosperms. The conifers usually grow slowly, live extraordinarily long lives, use nutrients in moderation and retain their canopy over numerous years. Life cycles of a fern and a pine are complex. The main similarities in the first stage of the life cycle of a fern and pine is that both the plants have the diploid sporophyte generation. The fern and the pine also use meiosis division to produce haploid spores or megaspores for reproduction. There are numerous differences between these plants. The pine is heterosporous; this means that it produces two different spores of different size and sex. Each is produced in different parts of the plant. The male gametophyte is produced in the pollen, while the female gametophyte is produced in the cone. Female cones are bigger than male cones and usually take up to two years to mature. On the other hand the fern reproduces asexually. Fern trees frond bear groups of sporangia on the lower surfaces. Haploid spores are

More about Plant Assignment Essay

Open Document