vascular plants - “tracheophytes” 

• completely adapted to land
• structures support body/conducting vessels >> able to grow tall
• includes seedless vascular plants, gymnosperms, angiosperms

seedless vascular plants - 

• Pterophyta - ferns, mostly in tropics
  • can grow up to 24 m
  • sporophyte dominates (unlike nonvascular plants)
  • sori - reproductive structures, on the back of fronds
  • rhizome - underground stem
  • prothallus - haploid, produces gametes
• Psilophyta - whisk ferns, simplest vascular plants (no roots/leaves)
• Arthrophyta - Horsetails, under 5 ft tall
  • in wet/marshy places
  • used as pot scrubbers by native Americans
  • stobilus - spore producing body
  • elater - helps spores w/ dispersal
  • bisexual gametophyte - archegonia develops before antheridia >> prevents self-fertilization
• Lycophyta - club mosses
  • has microphyll (single vein w/o gaps between petiole/stem)

seed - makes it possible for terrestrial life 

• protects embryo from drought, predator
• increases dispersal
• no need for water to reproduce
• pollination through wind, insects, mammals, birds

gymnosperms - naked seeds, rests in cones 

• includes oldest/largest trees
  • Bristle Cone Pines > 4000 years old
  • Giant Redwoods > 100 m
• Coniferophyta - pines, cedars, cypress, redwood
  • needle-like leaves
  • male cones smaller than female cones
  • male cones located below female cones >> can’t self-fertilize
  • takes 2 years for cones to fully form
• Cycadophyta - tropical/subtropical
  • centrally-located cone
  • similar to pine life cycle
• Gnetophyta - closest to angiosperms, produces ephedrine
• Ginkgophyta - only 1 species (Ginkgo)
  • flagellated sperm
  • diecious - 1 sex, male/female trees
  • females stink because of seed (contains butyric/isobutyric acid)