VASCULAR

PLANTS

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Two major types of plants…
A. Non-vascular (lower) plants
1. Lack true conducting tissues, leaves and roots. Since
they lack elaborate conducting tissues they are
relatively small
2. The gametophytes are the dominant phase and the
sporophytes are dependent upon them
3. EXAMPLE: Bryophytes

B. Vascular (higher) plants:

1. Have true conducting tissues (xylem and phloem),
leaves, stems and roots
2. The sporophytes are the dominant phase and the
gametophytes are much reduced
3. Constitutes the majority of plants (seed and seedless)
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 VASCULAR
PLANTS have
xylem and phloem,
true leaves, stems
and roots

Bryophytes :
=Non-vascular
Plants, no true
stems, leaves or 3
roots
Two major groups of VASCULAR plants:
1. Seed plants - reproduce via seeds
– Seed = a structure in which the embryo (the
young sporophyte) is shed from the parent
plant, enclosed within a resistant coat,
together with a supply of food that aids its
establishment
– The majority of plants are seed plants

2. Seedless plants - reproduce via spores

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SeedLESS plants Seed plants

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ORGANIZATION OF VASCULAR PLANTS
Vascular plants have three systems:
1. Root System
– Underground (usually)
– Anchor the plant in the soil
– Absorb water and nutrients
– Conduct water and nutrients
– Food Storage
2. Shoot system
– Above ground
– Elevates the plant above the soil
– Many functions including:
photosynthesis, reproduction &
dispersal
– food and water conduction
3.Vascular system - conducts water
and minerals to the leaves and the
photosynthetic products away from
the leaves to the rest of the plant 6
 THE VASCULAR SYSTEM
Xylem
• A tissue which carries water &
nutrient up through a plant
• It is made up:
– Vessels – tubes in the xylem with
hard wall from lignin, short but
wide cells with perforate end walls
– Tracheids - longer, thin cells with
imperforate end walls
• In older stems, the central xylem
dies away and its vessels become
hardy wood.

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Phloem
• A tissue which distributes
the food made in the
leaves to all parts of plant
• Consist of sieve tubes
with companion cells
• Sieve tube - cells in long
columns. Their nuclei
and protoplasm have
been lost (but cell walls
remain = called ‘sieve
plates’).
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Other tissues in vascular plants
• Epidermis – surface layer of plants
• Cortex
– A layer of tissue inside the epidermis of stems
and roots. It consist of parenchyma (large
cells) and collenchyma (thick-walled cells)
• Endodermis – innermost layer of root cortex
• Pith or Medula – usually found in stem, made of
mature parenchyma tissues
• Cuticle- thin and waxy outer layer plants
epidermis

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Arrangement of  primary vascular tissues:
Stele = the arrangement of the primary vascular tissues
and the pith, if present. There are three types of steles:
1. Protostele:
• the phloem either surrounds the xylem or is
interspersed within it
• Most primitive type and it is found in extinct seedless
vascular plants, some ferns and the roots of most
plants

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2. Siphonostele:
• consists of a central
column of ground tissue
called the pith, which is
surrounded by the
vascular tissue
• The phloem may form
outside the cylinder of
xylem or on both sides
of it
• Found mostly in ferns,
the Pterophyta

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3. Eustele:
• consists of a system of
discrete vascular
strands around a
central pith
• Eusteles are found in
Sphenophyta, and
both the gymnosperms
and angiosperms

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The basic stele types in vascular plants.
(A) Protostele, (B) Siphonostele, (C-D) Eustele.

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ROOTS and LEAVES of vascular plants

• The roots of nearly all extant plants are protosteles

• Two kinds of leaves occur in the vascular plants
A. Microphylls
– Have only one vascular strand and they appear to
have originated as outgrowths of the stem
– Found in groups that have protosteles
B. Megaphylls
– Have more than one vascular trace and they
appear from webbing of several branches
– are associated with siphonosteles and eusteles

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VASCULAR PLANT REPRODUCTION
• All vascular plants have alternation of generations
• Alternation of generations =  a reproductive cycle
in which a haploid organ gives rise to a diploid
organ, which later undergoes meiosis, the products
of which later grow into a haploid organ again
– The haploid, gamete-producing phase is called
the gametophyte
– The diploid spore-producing phase is called the
sporophyte
• most of the gametophytes are dependent upon the
dominant sporophyte

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Homospory
• The earliest vascular plants produced
one kind of spore, so are called
homosporous
• Following meiosis the spore
germinates into a bisexual
(hermaphrodite) gametophyte which
gives rise to ‘antheridia’ and
‘archegonia’ (which produce sperm
and egg)
• Homospory is common in most of the
extinct vascular plants and most of
the ferns (Psilotophyta, Sphenophyta,
some Lycophyta, and the Pterophyta)

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Heterospory
• Plants produce two types of spores in two
different kinds of sporangia
• The spores : microspores (male) and
megaspores (female) are produced in
microsporangia and megasporangia
• Microspores give rise to microgametophytes
(male)
• megaspores give rise to megagametophytes
(female)
• Heterospory occurs in advanced (recent) plants:
some Lycophyta, a few ferns and all seed
plants
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 Homo vs Hetero
Homospory Heterospory

1. Production of only one kind of spores. 1. Production of two types of spores.

2. The sex is differentiated only at the 2. The sex differentiation occurs even at
gametophytic stage. the sporophytic phases.
3. The gametophyte of homosporous 3. The gametophyte of the
fern depends upon the soil and heterosporous fern is attached to
environmental condition for nutrition. the sporophyte.
4. The gametophyte is dependent on the 4. The gametophyte is independent on
external climatic condition. the external climatic condition.
5. The megaspore in heterosporous
5. The megaspores are small and large
ferns is large in size and possess only
in number.
one large megaspore.
6. The heterospory results in the
6. It does not result in the seed habit.
formation of seed habit.
7. The embryo gets nutrition from the 7. The new embryo gets sufficient 24
independent green prothallus. nutrients from the sporophyte.
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Microsporangia

Microspores
(pollen)

Microgametophyte
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Megasporangia

A single ovule

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 Differences between Homosporous
and Heterosporous Vascular Plants
Homosporous Heterosporous
Gametophytes outside spore inside spore
Develop: wall wall
Gametophyte Size: large small
Gametophyte independent of dependent on
Nutrition: sporophyte sporophyte

Homospory Heterospory
Gametophyte Gametophyte 28