1. The Seedless Vascular Pants: Ferns and Their Relatives
Chapter 21
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2. Phylum Psilotophyta (Whisk Ferns) Phylum Lycophyta (Club Mosses)
Outline
Phylum Psilotophyta (Whisk Ferns)
Phylum Lycophyta (Club Mosses)
Phylum Equisetophyta (Horsetails)
Phylum Polypodiophyta (Ferns)
Fossils
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3. Loosely resemble small, green whisk brooms. Structure and Form
Phylum Psilotophyta
The Whisk Ferns
Loosely resemble small, green whisk brooms.
Structure and Form
Sporophytes consist almost entirely of dichotomously forking aerial stems.
Have neither leaves nor roots.
Enations spirally arranged along stems.
Life Cycle:
Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed. - All Rights Reserved - McGraw Hill Companies

4. Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed
Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed. - All Rights Reserved - McGraw Hill Companies

5. Ground Pines, Spike Mosses, and Quillworts
Phylum Lycophyta
Ground Pines, Spike Mosses, and Quillworts
Collectively called club mosses.
Only two living representatives of two major genera.
Lycopodium
Selaginella
Sporophytes have microphylls.
Have true roots and stems.
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6. Lycopodium - Ground Pines Often grow on forest floors.
Phylum Lycophyta
Lycopodium - Ground Pines
Often grow on forest floors.
Resemble little Christmas trees, complete with cones.
Stems are simple or branched.
Develop from branching rhizomes.
Reproduction
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7. Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed
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8. Selaginella - Spike Mosses Especially abundant in tropics.
Phylum Lycophyta
Selaginella - Spike Mosses
Especially abundant in tropics.
Branch more freely than ground pines.
Leaves have a ligule on upper surface.
Produce two different kinds of spores and gametophytes (heterospory).
Reproduction
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9. Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed
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10. Microphylls are arranged in a tight spiral on a stubby stem.
Phylum Lycophyta
Isoetes - Quillworts
Most found in areas partially submerged in water, and least part of the year.
Microphylls are arranged in a tight spiral on a stubby stem.
Ligules occur towards leaf base.
Corms have vascular cambium.
Reproduction
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11. Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed
Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed. - All Rights Reserved - McGraw Hill Companies

12. The Horsetails and Scouring Rushes Structure and Form
Phylum Equisetophyta
The Horsetails and Scouring Rushes
Structure and Form
About 25 species scattered through all continents.
Significant silica deposits accumulate on the inner walls of the stem’s epidermal cells.
Branches, when present, are normally in whorls at regular intervals along the jointed stems.
Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed. - All Rights Reserved - McGraw Hill Companies

13. Leaves fused at their base forming a collar.
Phylum Equisetophyta
Both branched and unbranched species have tiny microphylls in whorls at the nodes.
Leaves fused at their base forming a collar.
Stems are distinctly ribbed and have obvious nodes and internodes.
Pith breaks down at maturity leaving a hollow central canal.
Aerial stems develop from horizontal rhizomes.
Reproduction
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14. Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed
Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed. - All Rights Reserved - McGraw Hill Companies

15. Human and Ecological Relevance Many giant horsetails used for food.
Phylum Equisetophyta
Human and Ecological Relevance
Many giant horsetails used for food.
Scouring rush stems used for scouring and sharpening.
Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed. - All Rights Reserved - McGraw Hill Companies

16. Phylum Polypodiophyta
The Ferns
Structure and Forms
Approximately 11,000 known species of ferns vary in size from tiny floating forms less than 1 cm to giant tropical tree ferns up to 25 m tall.
Fern leaves are megaphylls that are commonly referred to as fronds.
Typically divided into smaller segments.
Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed. - All Rights Reserved - McGraw Hill Companies

17. Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed
Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed. - All Rights Reserved - McGraw Hill Companies

18. Spore Release From a Fern Sporangium
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19. Phylum Polypodiophyta
Human and Ecological Relevance
Extremely popular house plants.
Serve as air filters.
Cooked rhizomes serve as food.
Folk Medicine
Fronds used in thatching houses.
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20. Hard parts more likely preserved than soft parts.
Fossils
A fossil is generally defined as any recognizable prehistoric organic object preserved from past geological ages.
Conditions of formation almost always include quick burial in an accumulation of sediments.
Hard parts more likely preserved than soft parts.
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21. Molds, Casts, Compressions, and Imprints
Fossils
Molds, Casts, Compressions, and Imprints
After being buried in sediment, the organic material may be slowly washed away by water percolating through the rock pores.
If air space remains - Mold
If silica fills space - Cast
Compression takes place when objects are buried by layers of sediment and greatly compressed so that only a thin outline is left.
Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed. - All Rights Reserved - McGraw Hill Companies

22. Fossils Petrifications
Petrifications are uncompressed rock-like material in which the original cell structure has been preserved.
Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed. - All Rights Reserved - McGraw Hill Companies

23. Phylum Psilotophyta (Whisk Ferns) Phylum Lycophyta (Club Mosses)
Review
Phylum Psilotophyta (Whisk Ferns)
Phylum Lycophyta (Club Mosses)
Phylum Equisetophyta (Horsetails)
Phylum Polypodiophyta (Ferns)
Fossils
Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed. - All Rights Reserved - McGraw Hill Companies

24. Copyright © McGraw-Hill Companies Permission Required for Reproduction or Display
Stern - Introductory Plant Biology: 9th Ed. - All Rights Reserved - McGraw Hill Companies