- Key People:
- Robert Brown
- Related Topics:
- conifer
- cycadophyte
- gnetophyte
- ginkgophyte
- Cycadeoidophyta
The division Ginkgophyta consists of a single living species, Ginkgo biloba. A hardy deciduous tree, Ginkgo resembles an angiosperm in that the woody stem is frequently and irregularly branched and bears broad leaves, which are fan-shaped with dichotomously branched veins. Although it is now cultivated extensively around the world, Ginkgo is an endangered species, as its natural populations have been reduced to a small portion of the mountains of southeastern China.
Like the cycads, Ginkgo is dioecious and bears microsporangia and megasporangia on separate trees. A Ginkgo microstrobilus is borne on a dwarf shoot among the fan-shaped leaves. The microstrobilar axis bears stalked appendages at the ends of each of which are two microsporangia. Megastrobili are borne on elongated slender stalks, each with a pair of terminal ovules. Usually only one ovule matures into a seed.
Stems of Ginkgo are anatomically similar to those of conifers. Ginkgo has two kinds of branches: elongated major branches and dwarf lateral branches that bear leaves. After several years those dwarf shoots develop into short stubby outgrowths from the stem.
Gnetophyta
The division Gnetophyta has three families across three orders: Ephedraceae, Gnetaceae, and Welwitschiaceae. The family Ephedraceae consists of about 65 species of shrubs in a single genus, Ephedra. Gnetaceae has some 30 species in the genus Gnetum, many of which are trees or vines. Welwitschiaceae consists of a single species, Welwitschia mirabilis, characterized by a massive squat stem and two leaves.
Some Ephedra species may have both microstrobili and megastrobili on the same plant, though they more commonly occur on separate plants. Both Gnetum and Welwitschia are dioecious.
The large oval leaves of Gnetum look much like those of dicotyledonous angiosperms, while those of Ephedra are small and scalelike. The two leaves of Welwitschia are leathery and straplike and survive for the life of the plant.
Neither Ephedra nor Gnetum produce extensive vascular cylinders, though Gnetum, unlike most gymnosperms, has vessels in the xylem.
Evolution and paleobotany
Gymnosperms were the first seed plants to have evolved. The earliest seedlike bodies are found in rocks of the Upper Devonian Series (about 382.7 million to 358.9 million years ago). During the course of the evolution of the seed habit, a number of morphological modifications were necessary. First, all seed plants are heterosporous, meaning that two kinds of spores (microspores and megaspores) are produced by the sporophyte. Hence, it is assumed that the ancestors of seed plants were heterosporous. Secondly, sporangia of seedless plants typically lack an integument, which forms the seed coat in gymnosperms. Fossil ovules discovered in Scotland suggest that integuments originated during the Mississippian subdivision of the Carboniferous Period (about 358.9 million to 323.2 million years ago). The ovules of Genomosperma kidstonii, for example, consisted of an elongated megasporangium with one functional megaspore and featured eight elongated fingerlike processes that loosely surrounded the megasporangium. In a related species, G. latens, those eight fingerlike processes were fused at the base into a cup and covered the megasporangium rather closely.
The extinct division Progymnospermophyta is thought to be ancestral to seed plants. The best-known progymnosperm is the Devonian Archaeopteris, originally assumed to be a fern, with wedge-shaped subdivided leaflets known as pinnules and sporangia borne on appendages in between the pinnules. Its wood was like that of many conifers, consisting of tracheids and vascular rays, with closely spaced circular bordered pits on the radial walls of the tracheids. Pits were clustered, separated from other clusters by an area of the wall lacking pits. At least some species are known to have been heterosporous. Archaeopteris had many of the features to be anticipated in a seed-plant ancestor and likely gave rise to more than one group of gymnosperms.
Earliest gymnosperms
The earliest recognized group of gymnospermous seed plants are members of the extinct division Pteridospermophyta, known as pteridosperms or seed ferns. These plants originated in the Devonian Period and were widespread by the Carboniferous. In habit, seed ferns resembled some progymnosperms in that they were small trees with fernlike leaves (the equivalent of a progymnospermous flattened branch) bearing seeds. Secondary vascular tissues were common in stems of seed ferns, though the wood was composed of thin-walled tracheids and abundant vascular rays, suggesting that stems were fleshy like those of cycads. Pteridosperm seeds were very similar to those of cycads and were often large, with a soft outer seed coat and a harder inner seed coat. Within a mature ovule was a massive female gametophyte with several archegonia. Some fossils suggest that the transport of the sperm through a pollen tube (siphonogamy) was in existence as far back as the Paleozoic. Pollen-bearing organs were variable among the pteridosperms; in many cases the microsporangia were elongated and fingerlike and were produced in clusters or were fused into compound organs.
