Lycopodiophyta - Reference Center

Columbia Encyclopedia entry: Lycopodiophyta

Lycopodiophytalī′kōpō′dēŏf'ətə, division of the plant kingdom consisting of the organisms commonly called club mosses and quillworts. As in other vascular plants, the sporophyte, or spore-producing phase, is the conspicuous generation, and the gametophyte, or gamete-producing phase, is minute. The living representatives are all rather small herbaceous plants, usually with branched stems and small leaves, but their fossil ancestors were trees. Like other vascular plants, the axes of this group have epidermis, cortex, and a central cylinder, or stele, of conducting tissue. The spore cases, or sporangia, are borne at the base of leaves, either scattered along the stem or clustered into a terminal cone or strobilus. At maturity, the sporangia split across the top, releasing great quantities of spores. The spores germinate to produce small, nongreen, fleshy gametophytes, which bear both sperm-producing antheridia and egg-producing archegonia. The motile sperms swim to the egg through a film of water. The fertilized egg, or zygote, gives rise to an embryo and eventually to a mature sporophyte. The order Lycopodiales includes the common genus Lycopodium, the larger of two genera (the other is Phylloglossum) belonging to this order and containing some 100 species. The order Selaginellales contains only one living genus, Selaginella, with perhaps 600 species, although fossil forms resembling Selaginella are known from deposits of the Carboniferous period (see resurrection plant). The order Isoetales (quillworts) contains the small genus Isoetes, which grows in shallow water in lakes, ponds, and marshy places. The plants have a grasslike appearance and are therefore often not readily identified. The order Lepidodendrales contains members known only from fossil specimens dating from the Upper Devonian to Permian times. Lepidodendron, the most common genus, was of tree size.

Wikipedia search results for: Lycopodiophyta

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Division Lycopodiophyta is a tracheophyte subdivision of the Kingdom Plantae. It is the oldest extant vascular plant division at around 410 million years old, and includes some of the most "primitive" extant species. These species reproduce by shedding spores and have macroscopic alternation of generations, although some are homosporous while others are heterosporous. Members of Lycopodiophyta bear a protostele, and the sporophyte generation is dominant. Eichhorn, Evert, and Raven. Biology of Plants, Seventh Edition. 381-388. They differ from all other vascular plants in having microphylls, leaves that have only a single vascular trace...more »

Columbia Encyclopedia search results: Lycopodiophyta

Results 1 - 7 of 7

running pine
Running pine, common name for the plant species Lycopodium clavatum, also called ground pine. See Lycopodiophyta.
quillwort
Quillwort, common name for several species of the plant genus Isoetes, which grow in ponds, slow streams, and swampy places. See Lycopodiophyta.
Sigillaria
Sigillaria, genus of fossil club moss allied to Lepidodendron, abundant in the Carboniferous period. The thick trunk was rarely branched and was covered for several feet from the top with erec...
resurrection plant
Resurrection plant, name for several plants, usually of arid regions, that may apparently be brought back to life after they are dead. In reality they have hygroscopic qualities which cause th...
Lepidodendron and Sigillaria
Lepidodendron and Sigillaria, two principal genera of an extinct group of primitive vascular trees. They dominated the forests of the early Carboniferous period until the ferns gained ascendan...
club moss
Club moss, name generally used for the living species of the class Lycopodiopsida, a primitive subdivision of vascular plants. The Lycopodiopsida were a dominant plant group in the Carbonifero...
plant
Plant, any organism of the plant kingdom, as opposed to one of the animal kingdom or of the kingdoms Fungi, Protista, or Monera in the five-kingdom system of classification. (A more recent sys...

Related Encyclopedia Matches

Reference Center To Go