Seedless Plants

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Seedless Plants

• Chapter 4 Section 2

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Mosses and Liverworts

• Found on soil, tree bark, and rocks.
• Live in wet areas due to their lack of a vascular
  system
• Dont have true stems, roots, and leaves
• Live together in large groups
• Rhizoids are slender, hairlike threads that help
  to hold the moss in place.

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Liverworts

• Small, nonvascular plants living in damp or moist
  areas
• Similar to mosses

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The Importance ofMosses and Liverworts

• Small but very important to the environment
• First plants to inhabit a new environment
• When they die, they form a thin layer of soil in
  which new plants can grow.
• Help to prevent erosion
• Nesting material for birds

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Ferns, Horsetails,and Club Mosses

• Ancient forms grew very tall (8 40 m tall)
• These plants could grow taller due to their
  vascular systems.

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Ferns

• Grow in many places, cold Arctic to warm, humid
  tropical forests
• Ferns have an underground stem called a rhizome.
• The rhizome produces leaves called fronds.
• Young fronds are tightly coiled and called
  fiddleheads.

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Horsetails

• Common millions of years ago
• 15 species have survived
• Todays varieties are smaller
• Grow in wet, marshy areas
• Stems are hollow with silica
• Pioneers used them as scouring brushes and were
  given the name scouring rushes

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Club Mosses

• Not a moss
• Grow in woodlands, 25 cm tall
• Have vascular tissue
• Millions of years old

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The Importance of Seedless Vascular Plants

• Help to form soil
• Help to prevent erosion
• Popular houseplants
• Some can be eaten
• Remains of vascular plants formed coal

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Section Review

• What is the connection between coal and seedless
  vascular plants?
• How are horsetails and club mosses similar to
  ferns?
• List two ways that seedless vascular plants are
  important to the environment.
• Why dont mosses ever grow as large as ferns?

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