VASCULAR PLANTS:

PTERIDOPHYTA
(SEEDLESS PLANTS)
CLASSIFICATION
• Kingdom: Plantae
• Phylum: Pteridophyta
• Sub-phylum:
• Phylum Psilotophyta (whisk ferns)
• Phylum Lycophyta (club mosses and quillworts)
• Phylum Equisetophyta (horsetails and scouring rashes)
• Phylum Polypodiophyta (ferns)
DEFINITION OF TERMS
• Archegonia – female reproductive organ
• Antheridium – male reproductive organ
• Eusporangiate - when sporangium develop from group of initials
• Gametophyte – a small, simple prothallus
• Indusium – a thin membrane covering the sorus of a fern
• Leptosporangiate – when sporangium develop from a single initial
• Megaphylls – the leaves with more than one vein and a leaf trace is associated
with leaf gap. They are often large and much divided.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
• Microphylls – the leaves with a single vein whose trace is not associated
with a leaf gap. They are photosynthetic and much smaller size.
• Rhizomes – a specialized stem underground that produces adventitious
roots.
• Sorus/Sori – another term for sporangia
• Sporangium – it is where the spores are produced
• Sporophylls – are leaves that bears sporangia
• Sporophyte – the main plant body
• Vascular plants – are plants that have food-transporting phloem and water-
transporting xylem tissues.
CHARACTERISTICS
• Pteridophytes derived from Greek words, pteron “feather” + phyton
“plants”.
• It includes to the most primitive seedless vascular plants that reproduce
by means of spores.
• They are considered as the first true land plants that evolved after
bryophytes.
• They are sometimes called “Botanical Snakes”, “Snakes of plant
kingdom” or “Amphibians of plant kingdom” because they depend on an
external source of water for fertilization.
• There are about 11,000 species of living Pteridophytes are known
ranging from small aquatic plant to giant tree ferns of tropical forests.
• Pteridophytes do not produce seeds but rather produces spores.
• Vascular tissues are present in all the vegetative parts of the plant body.
• The sporophyte is the main plant body and it is mostly herbaceous. It is
differentiated into roots, stem and leaves.
• The branching of the stem may be of monopodial or dichotomous type.
• The leaves may be smaller (microphylls) or larger (megaphylls).
• The plants may be homosporous - producing only one type of spore
or heterosporous - producing two different types of spores;
smaller microspores and larger megaspores.
HABITAT
• Some Pteridophyta are terrestrial and grow in
moist and shady places while some are aquatic
(hydrophyte) and sticking in other plant (epiphyte),
or living in residue/waste of other plant
(saprophyte).
REPRODUCTION
• The spores germinate to produce a haploid gametophyte, called prothallus.
The homosporous pteridophytes produce bisexual gametophytes while
heterosporous pteridophytes produce unisexual gametophytes.
• In gametophytes, reproduction is of oogamous type. The male sex organs are
called antheridia and female sex organs are called archegonia.
• Antheridia produce antherozoids and archegonia enclose the egg cell.
Fertilization requires water. The diploid zygote is retained in the archegonial
venter where it develops into an embryo. Subsequently it becomes a young
sporophyte and grows into an independent adult plant. Thus the life cycle
includes an alternation of diploid sporophytic generation with a haploid
gametophytic generation. Sporophytic generation is dominant in the life cycle.
LIFE CYCLE OF PTERIDOPHYTES
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE
• Ornamental value: Ferns arc grown as ornamental plants in
gardens and homes for their attractive foliage.
• Drug, rhizomes and petioles of Dryopteris yield an
anthelminthic drug.
• Food. Sporocarps of Marsilea are rich source of starch and
eaten for their nutritive value as food.
 SUB-PHYLA OF SEEDLESS VASCULAR PLANTS
FERN AND FERN ALLIES
1. Phylum Psilotophyta (whisk ferns)
• The sporophytes of this plant have neither true leaves nor roots, and stems and
rhizomes that fork evenly.
2. Phylum Lycophyta (club mosses and quillworts)
• The stems of this plants are covered with microphylls that are photosynthetic.
3. Phylum Equisetophyta (horsetails and scouring rushes)
• The sporophytes of these plants have ribbed stems containing silica deposit and
whorled, scalelike microphylls that lack chlorophyll.
4. Phylum Polypodiophyta (ferns)
• The sporophyte of ferns have megaphylls that are often large and much divided.
Division Equisetophyta
THE HORSETAILS AND SCOURING RUSHES
CLASSIFICATION
• Kingdom: Plantae
• Phylum: Pteridophyta
• Class: Equisetopsida
• Order: Equisetales
• Family: Equisetaceae
• Genus: Equisetum
• Species: E. arvense
GENUS: EQUISETUM
Common names: Horsetail, snake grass, puzzle grass
• Derived from the Latin, equus "horse" + seta "bristle".
• It is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of
vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds
or flowers.
• It is a "living fossil" as it is the only living genus of the entire
class Equisetopsida, which was much more diverse in
Devonian Period (400 million years ago).
• Most horsetails grow in damp or marshy habitats, but some
can grow in drier soil.
Horsetail – branched
Scouring Rushes – unbranched
STRUCTURE AND FORM
• They are perennial plants, either herbaceous or evergreen.
• They typically grow less than 1.3 meters (4 feet) tall, but in
some tropical and coastal forest exceed 4.6 meters (15 feet) in
height.
• They have tiny, scale-like leaves arranged in whorls at the
nodes of its stem.
• These leaves are fused together at their bases, forming a collar.
• They are green when they first appear, but they soon wither
and bleach.
• All photosynthesis occurs in the stem.
• The stems are distinctly ribbed and
have nodes and internodes.
• There are numerous stomata in the
grooves between the ribs.
• The aerial stems develop horizontal
rhizomes, which also have regular
nodes, internodes and ribs. In some
species, the rhizomes have adventitious
roots and may form extensive
branching system as much as 2 meters
(6.5 feet) below the surface.
INTERNAL STRUCTURE
• Epidermis is where the silica is deposited on the inner walls of
epidermal cells.
• Vertical ridges provide the main support for the plant as they
are packed with sclerenchyma, which occurs in the outer
cortex.
• The pith breaks down at maturity, leaving a hollow central
canal, reduces the weight of the stem and the chief supporting
structures are concentrated towards the outside, increasing
the strength of the stem and its resistance to buckling.
INTERNAL STRUCTURE
• Two smaller canals outside of the pith:
• Carinal Canals – a water conduction; inner cylinder
• Vallecular Canals – air spaces; outer cylinder
– it serve for respiration and to reduce weight
hello world!!!!!! and increase stem strength.
• Chlorophyllous tissue is the main photosynthetic tissue and opens
to the outside air via stomata.
• Vascular bundles consists of xylem and phloem.
CROSS SECTION OF HORSETAIL’S STEM
REPRODUCTION
• Equisetum involves sexual reproduction,
and asexual reproduction by the process
of fragmentation.
• Strobilus is a small, cone-like structure
that develops at the tips of the
photosynthetic stems. It is usually about
2 to 4 cm long. Its surface has a
numerous hexagonal, dovetailing plates
which marks the top of sporangiophore
that has 5 to 10 elongate sporangia
connected to the rim.
STROBILUS
REPRODUCTION
• When sporangia reach maturity, the
sporangiophore separately lightly from its axis and
it releases spores.
• The sporocytes undergo meiosis, distinctive-
appearing green spores are produced. The spores
have four ribbon-like appendages, called elaters,
that are slightly extended at the tips.
• While the spores are being carried by air current, the elaters extended like
wings. When the spores enters the humid air pocket above the damp area
below, the elaters coil, causing the spore to drop in an area that is more likely
to start germination and growth.
• Germination of spores occurs within a week of release.
Lobed, cushion-like, green gametophytes develop.
• Each gametophyte has lobes that house the antheridia,
which produce sperm, and the archegonia, which produce
eggs.
• The egg is fertilized by the sperm in the archegonium, and
diploid zygote begins to grow inside the archegonium. This
matures into the sporophyte plant.
LIFE CYCLE OF EQUISETUM
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE
• The young plants are eaten cooked or raw by Native Americans in the
Pacific Northwest and in Japan, it is eaten like asparagus, a dish called
tsukushi.
• The people of ancient Rome would used it to make tea as well as a
thickening powder.
• The plants are used as a dye and give a soft green color.
• Horsetail was often used by Indians to polish wooden tools
• The silica is used to clean pans and pots and also for polishing brass
and hardwood furniture and flooring.
• Equisetum species are often used to analyze gold concentrations.
MEDICINAL USES
• Extracts and other preparations of E. arvense have served as herbal remedies,
with records dating to ancient Greek and Roman medical sources.
• Its uses include treatments to stop bleeding, treat tuberculosis, to heal wounds
and ulcers, and to treat kidney ailments.
• People found silica from horsetail, so it is used to make medicine of diuretic
and it helps relieve kidney stones and urinary tract infections.
• In addition it helps combat osteoporosis, because horsetails cause increasing
bone density.
• Some Native American tribes burned the stems and used the ashes to alleviate
sore mouths or applied the ashes to severe burns.
• Other tribes ate the strobili of scouring rush to cure diarrhea, and others
boiled stems in water to make a hair wash for control of lice, mites and fleas.
SOME SPECIES OF EQUISETUM
• E. hyemale – Rough horsetail
• E. ramosissimum – Branched horsetail
• E. scirpoides – Dwarf horsetail
• E. arvense – Field horsetail
• E. fluviatile L. – Water Horsetail
• E. palustre L. – Marsh Horsetail
• E. pratense – Meadow Horsetail
• E. variegatum – Variegated horsetail
• E. sylvaticum L. – Wood Horsetail
• E. laevigatum – Smooth Horsetail
• E. telmateia – Northern giant horsetail
(2.5 m)
• E. giganteum – Southern giant
horsetail (5 m)
• E. myriochaetum – Mexican giant
horsetail (8 m)
PHYLUM
PSILOTOPHYTA
THE WHISK FERNS
• A division of vascular plants consisting of only two genera, Psilotum and
Tmesipteris, with very few species. These plants are characterized by the lack of
roots, and, in one species, leaves are lacking also.
• The green, photosynthetic stem is well-developed. The gametophyte plant,
arising from germination of a spore, is small and colorless, and derives its
nutrition through a specialized association with a fungus.
• Sexual structures on the gametophyte produce eggs and sperm. The motile
sperm, with numerous flagella, are able to swim through a film of water to the
egg. The fertilized egg, or zygote, first absorbs nourishment from the
gametophyte, and later becomes photosynthetic and self-sustaining. The life cycle
is very much like that of ferns.
CHARACTERISTICS
• The Psilotophyta are small rootless plants that are epiphytic or grow on humus-rich soil and
in rock crevices. The underground rhizomatous organs contain fungous hyphae (endotrophic
mycorrhiza). The stems are covered by an epidermis with stomata that are structurally similar
to the primitive stomata of fossil Rhyniaceae.
• There are two species of Psilotum, each having small scale-like leaves and repeatedly
dichotomously branching stems that are 20–100 cm long. Both species are found in the
tropics and subtropics of both hemispheres. The genus Tmesipteris also has two species,
whose stems measure 5–40 cm long and bear well-developed blades (sporophylls) in the
upper portion. The Tmesipteris are found primarily in Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and
Polynesia.
• The synangia that form on the Psilotophyta are bilocular or trilocular. The spores, as they
sprout, give rise to underground gametophytes that lack chlorophyll and live saprophytically
on fungi. The gametophytes do not differ from the young rhizomatous organs in size and form.
 Structure and form:
•Sporophytes:
− Dichotomously forking stems
 Above ground stems arise from rhizomes

− Lack leaves and roots

− Enations - tiny, green, superficially leaflike, veinless,
photosynthetic flaps of tissue
− Roots, aided by mycorrhizal fungi, scattered along
rhizomes
− Has spore-producing called synangia.
 PSILOTUM (WHISK FERN)
• A genus of fern-like vascular plants, one of two genera
in the family Psilotaceae, order Psilotales, and
class Psilotopsida. The name of the genus is from
Greek psilos = bare, referring to the lack of the usual
plant organs, such as leaves.

Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pteridophyta
Class: Psiolotopsida
Order: Psilotales
Family: Psilotaceae
Genus: Psilotum
Species: Psilotum nudum
Psilotum complanatum
 Sporangia

Scale
 TMESIPTERIS: THE “HANGING FORK FERN"
• A genus of fern-like vascular plants, one of two genera in the
family Psilotaceae, order Psilotales, and class Psilotopsida. The
fronds emerge directly from the fibrous root-mats which clad
the trunks of mature tree ferns such as Dicksonia and Cyathea.
• Tmesipteris is from the Greek language, meaning a "cut fern",
referring to the truncated leaf tips.
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pteridophyta
Class: Psilotopsida
Order: Psilotales
Family: Psiitaceae
Genus: Tmesipteris
Species: Tmesipteris elongata
 Reproduction:
• Sporangia fused in 3s and produced at
tips of short branches
• Gametophytes develop from spores
beneath ground
− Branch dichotomously
− No chlorophyll
− Rhizoids aided by mycorrhizal
fungi
− Archegonia and antheridia
scattered on surface
• Zygote develops foot and rhizome
• Rhizome separates from foot
END OF DISCUSSION