SEEDLESS PLANTS

BRYOPHYTES

The first and most primitive land plants. If you go any earlier than this in evolutionary time, you're just dealing with algae. These plants are non-vascular, meaning they do not have venation to transport water/sugar throughout their body. This limits the amount of growing these plants can do, as they have to stay within reach of their own nutrients, so they are often quite small. These plants, especially mosses, can flourish in areas that have recently experienced an ecological disturbance due to their reproduction by spores and their ability to grow without soil

Name	Common Name/Examples	Notable feature(s)	Botany	Photo
Marchantiophyta	Liverwort	Appears like a "flattened moss". Single celled rhizoids	Gametophyte can be leafy or thalloid.	Source
Bryophyta	True Mosses	Attracted to damp areas, soft and carpet-like in appearance	Simple "leaves", 1 cell thick Unlike liverworts, these have stomata	Source
Anthocerotophyta	Hornwort	Elongated horn-like sporophyte	Gametophytes are flat plates of cells Rare	Source

PTERIDOPHYTES

Vascular Plants, still seedless. WIP

Rhyniophyta

COMPLETELY EXTINCT :(

Name	Common Name/Examples	Notable feature(s)	Botany	Photo
Rhyniophyta	Rhynia	No leaves or roots simple vascular system terminal spore capsules (sporangia)	Anchored to ground with a rhizoid or rhizome Dichotomous branching	Source

Lycophyta

Sporophytes now have microphylls (small true leaves), stems, and roots. Estimated 1100+ species in 10-15 genera.

Name	Common Name/Examples	Notable feature(s)	Botany	Photo
Lycopodiaceae	Ground Pines Club Mosses	Spirally microphylls, subterranean gametophyte.	Sporangia in strobili homosporous	Source
Selaginellaceae	Spike Club Mosses Spike Mosses	2 sizes of microphylls, heterosporous	Sporangia in strobili	Source
Isotaceae	Quillworts Merlin's Grass	Short, stout stem called a corm that exhibits secondary growth.	Only one genus, Isoetes Heterosporous Consists of long microphylls, each with a basal sporangium	Source

Monilophyta

Name	Common Name/Examples	Notable feature(s)	Botany	Photo
Psilotaceae	Whisk ferns	Sporophytes with dichotomously branched stems and no roots	Well developed vascular system Gametophyte is subterranean	Source
Ophioglossaceae	Eusporangiate ferns Adder's Tongue	1 Photosynthetic + Sterile leaf blade	1 or more thick walled sporangia	Source
Equisetaceae	Horsetails	Has microphylls, stems, and roots	Always forms a strobilus Grows rapidly by rhizome	Source
Leptosporangia	Ferns	Front develops as a coiled "fiddlehead"	The True Ferns Over 12,000 species True roots, stems, and leaves/megaphylls	Source

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