Seedless Nonvascular & Vascular Plants

1
Seedless Nonvascular Vascular Plants

• -Chapter 12-
• Section 2
• Pg. 304

2
Nonvascular Seedless Plants

• All nonvascular plants are seedless meaning
• The plant groups in this category are mosses,
  liverworts, and hornworts.
• None of these plants have true stems, roots, or
  leaves.
• They are usually small since they have no
  vascular tissue.
• Typically live in damp places since they
  reproduce via spores.

3
Mosses

• They cover soil or rocks with a mat of tiny green
  plants.
• Have leafy stalks and rhizoids.
• Rhizoids- a root like structure that holds
  nonvascular plants in place and helps the plant
  get water and nutrients

4
Moss Life Cycle

• Turn to page 304- Figure 1

5
Liverworts and Hornworts

• Small, nonvascular plants
• Live in damp places
• Both Liverworts and Hornworts have rhizoids

6
Importance of Nonvascular Plants

• Important role in the environment
• First plants to live in a new environment,
• such as newly exposed rock.
• When these nonvascular plants die,
• they form a thin layer of soil.
• New plants can now grow in this soil.
• More nonvascular plants
• may grow and hold the soil in place
• reducing soil erosion

7
Other Importances

• Some animals eat nonvascular plants.
• Other animals use these plants
• for nesting material.
• Peat mosses are important
• to humans. They grow in bogs and
• other wet places. Used in potting soil.

8
Seedless Vascular Plants

• Typically, are these plants going to be smaller
  of larger than nonvascular plants?
• These plants include ferns, horsetails, and club
  mosses.

9
Ferns

• Grow anywhere from the cold Arctic to warm, humid
  tropical forests
• Most are small plants.
• Have a rhizome
• Rhizome- an underground stem from which new
  leaves and roots grow.

10
Fern Life Cycle

• Turn to page 306, Figure 3

11
Horsetails and Club Mosses

• Horsetails
• Can be tall but many are smaller
• -Grow in wet, marshy places
• Their stems are hollow and contain silica
• -The silica gives horsetails a gritty
• texture which American pioneers
• utilized as pot and pan scrubbers
• Club Mosses
• Not actually mosses
• Grow in woodlands
• Have vascular tissue

12
Importance of Seedless Vascular Plants

• Roles in the Environment
• Ferns, horsetails, and club mosses help form soil
• Help prevent soil erosion
• Ferns can play a role in the formation of
  communities in rocky areas
• Ferns add to soil depth, which allows other
  plants grow.

13
Importance of Seedless Vascular Plants

• Ferns and some club mosses are popular
  houseplants
• Fiddleheads of some ferns can be cooked
• and eaten.
• Horsetails are used in some dietary supplements,
  shampoos, and skin-care products.

14
Importance to Humans

• The remains of ancient ferns, horsetails, and
  club mosses formed coal.
• Coal is a fossil fuel that humans mine from the
  Earths crust.
• Humans rely on coal for energy.