Gymnosperm
Gymnosperms are a group of
seed-bearing plants which bear seeds on cone-like structures rather than inside fruit like angiosperms. The term gymnosperm comes from the Greek word
gumnospermos, translated literally "naked seeds". The name points out that the seeds are not formed in ovules or found inside fruit, as they are in
angiosperms, but are found naked on the scales of a
cone or similar structure.
The production of seeds distinguishes the gymnosperms from other members of the vascular plants. Thus together they are called
seed plants.
Encyclopedia
Gymnosperms are a group of
seed-bearing plants which bear seeds on cone-like structures rather than inside fruit like angiosperms. The term gymnosperm comes from the Greek word
gumnospermos, translated literally "naked seeds". The name points out that the seeds are not formed in ovules or found inside fruit, as they are in
angiosperms, but are found naked on the scales of a
cone or similar structure.
The production of seeds distinguishes the gymnosperms from other members of the vascular plants. Thus together they are called
seed plants.
Gymnosperms are
heterosporous, producing
microspores that develop into
pollen grains and
megaspores that are retained in an ovule. After fertilization , the resulting embryo, along with other cells comprising the ovule, develops into a seed. The seed is a sporophyte resting stage.
In early classification schemes, the gymnosperms "naked seed" plants were regarded as a "natural" group. However, certain fossil discoveries suggest that the angiosperms evolved from a gymnosperm ancestor, which would make the gymnosperms a
paraphyletic group if all extinct taxa are included. Modern
cladistics only accepts taxa that are
monophyletic, traceable to a common ancestor and inclusive of all descendants of that common ancestor. So, while the term gymnosperm is still widely used for non-angiosperm seed-bearing plants, the plant species once treated as gymnosperms are usually distributed among four groups, which can be given equal rank as divisions within the
Kingdom Plantae. These groups are:
With regard to extant gymnosperms, molecular phylogenies of living taxa have conflicted with morphological datasets with regard to whether they comprise a monophyletic or paraphyletic group with respect to angiosperms. At issue is whether the Gnetophyta are the sister taxon to angiosperms, or whether they are sister to, or nested within, other extant gymnosperms.
References
- Bowe, L. Michelle, Gwénaële Coat, and Claude W. dePamphilis. 2000. Phylogeny of seed plants based on all three genomic compartments: Extant gymnosperms are monophyletic and Gnetales' closest relatives are conifers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97: 4092-4097 .
- Soltis, Douglas E., Pamela S. Soltis and Michael J. Zanis. 2002. Phylogeny of seed plants based on evidence from eight genes. American Journal of Botany 89: 1670-1681 .
- Chaw, Shu-Miaw, Christopher L. Parkinson, Yuchang Cheng, Thomas M. Vincent, and Jeffrey D. Palmer. 2000. Seed plant phylogeny inferred from all three plant genomes: Monophyly of extant gymnosperms and origin of Gnetales from conifers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97: 4086-4091 .
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