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General Characteristics of Pteridophyte

(Adiantum)

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Miss.Sana Riaz Rooshana Sadaqat

Roll No. :

2202138024

BS Zoology (FYDP)

Semester II(2020-2024)

Date of submission:

23-04-2021
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Table of Contents

SR # Topics Page #

00 Introduction to Pteridiophytes 03

01 Adiantum 03

1.1 Dwelling 03

1.2 Vegetative attributes 04

1.3 Morphological attributes 04

1.3.1 Rhizome 04

1.3.2 Root 04

1.3.3 Leave 04

1.4 Anatomy of Rhizome 05

1.4.1 Epidermis 05

1.4.2 Cortex 05

1.4.3 Stelar organzation 05

1.5 Anatomy of Leaf 07

1.5.1 Petiole 07

1.5.2 Leaf blade 07

1.6 Anatomy of Root 08

1.7 Reproduction 08

1.7.1 Sporophyte generation 08

1.7.2 Gametophyte generation 10

References 13
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Introduction to Pteridiophytes

More than 20 years ago, Edward Klekowski (1979), who can validly be called the father of modern studies
on pteridophyte genetics, published a summary and synthesis of the unique features of homosporous pteridophytes.

Pteridophtyes are a phylum of plants. They are the vascular plants (those having xylem and phloem tissues) that
reproduce by releasing spores rather than seeds, and they include the highly diverse true ferns and other graceful,
primarily forest-dwelling plants. There are about eleven thousand different species of pteridophytes, making them the
most diverse land plants after the flowering plants (angiosperms). Pteridophytes may represent the closest living relatives
(sister group) to the seed plants. (Seed plants include the angiosperms, the conifers, and a smaller assortment of other
plants.

Adiantum

Division Pteropsida
Class Leptosporangiopsida
Order Filicales
Family Polypodiaceae
Genus Adiantum
Dwelling:

Adiantum is popularly called ‘Maiden hair fem’ because of the shiny black rachis of the leaves. Due to this characteristic
adiantum is also called maiden hair fern. It is one of the most widely distributed genera. It is found in plains of Punjab,
Pakistan. Other genera are Cheilanthes, Pellaea, Ceratopieris and Anogramma of the family growing luxuriantly in both
tropical and sub topical regions of the world. It grows ubiquitously wherever nature offers a moist, shaded locality. There
are nearly 200 species.

Maidenhairs are intolerant of direct sun, thriving in indirect or filtered light, high humidity and rich, moist soil. They are a
common forest species throughout the world, usually found near water and sometimes found growing from the cliffs
alongside waterfalls.
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They are also grown for ornamental purposes.

Vegetative attributes:

The plant is homosporous sporophyte.Sporogenesis was scrutinized from sporangial initial of a single surface cell to the
annulus shedding spores explosively.

Morphological attributes:

The plant body is differentiated into roots, stem and leaves. Stem is in form f rhizome actually.

Rhizome:

The rhizome is a perennial, subterranean dichotomously branched structure and is creeping in A. capillus-veneris or may
be erect as in A. caudatum. It grows very near to soil surface.It is covered with numerous sacles called palea. It is covered
with persistent leaf bases and hairy outgrowths called ramenta.

Roots:

Roots actually arise from stem. They develop from single apical cell which cuts off derivatives that develops into various
cells of roots. Roots are adventitious and may be branched.

Leaves:

The leaves are also called fronds and are pinnately compound (unipinnate- A. caudatum, bipinnate- A. capillus-
veneris) the young leaves are circinately coiled. The petiole is long, black and shiny. The venation is free and
dichotomous in all the species. The vein spread in a fan-like manner in the lamina. The leaves bear marginal sori which
are covered by a false indusium.
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Anatomy of Rhizome:

The rhizome in transverse section shows a single layered epidermis covered by cuticle. Some epidermal cells bear
multicellular hairs. The Epidermis is followed by two to three layered hypodermis made up of sclerenchyma tissue. A
parenchymatous ground tissue is present. The young rhizomes have amphiphloic siphonostele. The older rhizomes have
solenostele or dictyostele.

Transverse Section of Rhizome of Adiantum.

Epidermis: The outermost layer is epidermis comprising of thin walled or slightly thick walled cells.The external surface
is lined with thick cuticle. It is without stomata.

Cortex: Beneath the epidermis there is a layer of parenchymatous cells, the cortex. These cells enclose intercellular
spaces. There is thin and distinct layer of sclerenchyma cells beneath epidermis, called as hypodermis.

Stelar Organization: Stele is basically evolved in pteridiophytes. Stele is protostele in embryonic stem,but in older
stems it gradually changes into siphonostele, solenostele or dictyostele depending upon species.It is surrounded by a well
differentiated endodermis that separates it from pith and cortex. The xylem is mesarch in development and composed
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chiefly of trachieds. The phloem is composed of sieve elements. These are elongate and have numerous sieve areas in
their vertical walls. Companion cells are absent. Xylem is surrounded by narrow layer of phloem. Sometimes a single
layer of parenchymatous cells is present between xylem and phloem.

Stele is evolved in pteridiophytes in this way:

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Anatomy of Leaf: Adiantum has large bipinnately compound leaves. The main axis of the leaf is called the radius. The
leaflets of the first order are called pinnae and leaflets of the second order are called as pinnules.

Each leaflet is green and triangular it has broader ends towards apex. Broader end is divided into three or four small lobes.
These reflexed apical nodes bear sporangia on their underside. Young leaves are coiled inward in embryonic state, its
called circinnate vernation.

Petiole: The petiole in T.S. shows a single layered epidermis with thick cuticle. Epidermis is followed by a
sclerenchymatous hypodermis which provides mechanical support. There is an extensive parenchymatous ground tissue.
The central region possesses a single large horse shoe shaped stele. Xylem forms central core surrounded by phloem.

Leaf Blade: Both the blades are covered with epidermis. Epidermal cells contain chloroplasts and their uter surfaces are
covered with a thin cuticle. Lowwer epidermis contain a number of stomata. Mesophyll cells are in limited in extent,
therefore epidermal cells play major role in photosynthesis. Veins are composed of collaterally arranged xylem and
phloem. Phloem faces lower epidermis while xylem faces upper one. Veins are surrounded by sclarenchyma cells in some
species.
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Anatomy of Root: The root is differentiated into epidermis, cortex and central vascular cylinder. The epidermis is the
outermost layer and bears unicellular root hairs. The cortex is divided into outer wide parenchymatous and inner narrow
sclerenchymatous layer. The stele is simple and possesses a central core of xylem in diarch condition with phloem on
either side of it.

Reproduction: The life cycle of adiantum is characterized by alternation of generation and both the spore and
gamete producing generations are independent.

Sporophyte Generation: Adiantum is homosporous. The reproduction takes place by the production of spores. The
spores are produced in sporangia.

The Sori: . A group of sporangia forms sori. The sori (Gr. soros:heap) are marginal but the reflex margins of the pinna
form a protective membranous structure called false indusium ( L. a woman’s undergarment). Sporangia actually borne on
this false indusium. The development of sporangium is of leptosporangiate type.
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Constitution and Buildout of Sporangium: A mature sporangium bears a multicellular stalk and a spherical or elliptical
single layered structure called capsule.

Capsule: The capsule contains haploid spores. The wall of the capsule is differentiated into thick walled annulus and thin
walled stomium. On maturity the sporangium bursts and spores are released. The spores germinate and undergo repeated
division to produce a prothallus.

Annulus: An incomplete ring about sporangium is called annulus.The radical and tagential walls of these cells thickened.

Stomium: Between the last cell of annulus and the sporangium stalk there are usually four thin walled cells called lip
cells or stomium. Stomium helps in dispersal of spores.

Dehiscence of sporangium: The thin outer tangential wall of annulus lose water and become shorten in length and
become concave so that sporangium wall ruptures at stomium. The sporangium wall moves ejecting spores. Each spore is
tetrahedral and are diffrenciated into two layers the outer ornamented exine and inner intine.

Germination of spores: Upon reaching a suitable place for growth. The spores absorb moisture, increase in size and then
exine ruptures at the triradiate ridge. The intine protrudes out to form a small filament , the germ tube. It divides into
smaller basal cells and give rise to first rhizoid and a larger apical cell with two cutting faces. It bisects segments and is
replaced by transverse row of cells lying in apical notch. The activity of these cells result in spatulate prothallus or
gametophyte.
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Gametophyte Generation: The prothallus of adiantum is heart shaped It is remain single layered at the margins and cells
are thick in middle. All the cells of prothallus are green in colour and contain a single disc shaped chloroplast. There is no
mycorhizal fungus in the prothallus.

Sex Organs: Sex organs antheridia and archegonia produced on the same prothallus. Antheridia are projecting and
develop first near posterior part of gametophyte among the rhizoids. The archegonia develop in the thickened central
cushion. The neck of the archegonium projects above the surface of the thallus.

Antheridium: A mature antheridium is globular and consists of a 3-called wall enclosing spermatocytes. The wall
consists of three cells, two of then ringlike and the uppermost a cap or cover cell. ... The first and second ring cells and
cover cells constitute the antheridium wall adiantum. Antheridia may be sunken (as in the families Ophioglossaceae
and Marattiaceae) or protruding. They vary in size from those with hundreds of sperm to those with only 12 or so.

Archegonium: The egg-producing organ, the archegonium, contains one gamete (sex cell), which is always located in the
lower, more or less dilated portion of the archegonium, the venter. The upper part of the archegonium, the neck, consists
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of four rows of cells containing central neck cells. The uppermost of the neck cells are the neck canal cells; the lowest cell
is the ventral canal cell, which is situated just above the egg.

Fertilization: Fertilization is attained by the ejection of sperm from antheridia. The sperm swim through free water
toward simple organic acids released at the opening of the archegonium, the neck of which spreads apart at the apex,
permitting the neck cells to be extruded and the sperm to swim in and penetrate the egg. The sperm are made up almost
entirely of nuclear material, but their surface is provided with spiral bands of cilia-hairlike organs that effect locomotion.
When the egg is fertilized, the base of the neck closes, and the embryo develops within the expanding venter.

Embryo: Within the archegonial venter the zygote undergoes characteristic cell divisions to form the embryo, which
remains encapsulated in the gametophyte until it breaks out and becomes an independent plant. The pattern of
development in most ferns is a distinctive one, and indeed only in the Botrychium subgenus Sceptridium and in
all species of the family Marattiaceae thus far studied are found conditions of embryonic development resembling those
of seed plants. Here the first division of the zygote is transverse. The inner cell grows inward, producing the stem and
first leaf, and the outer cell divides to form a foot, a mass of tissue that exists as part of the embryo and disappears when
its function, presumably absorption, is completed. The root appears later within the stem and grows outward. In all other
known ferns the zygote divides neatly into four quadrants, the first division approximately parallel to the long axis of the
archegonium and the following division at right angles. This results in initial cells that give rise to four organs: the outer
forward cell (i.e., toward the growing apex of the gametophyte and the neck of the archegonium) becomes the first leaf,
the inner forward cell the stem apex, the outer back cell the first root, and the inner back cell the foot. Thus, the majority
of ferns tend to have a precise arrangement of their organs and the divisions that produce them in the embryo.
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