Question

What is a non-flowering plant called ?

Answer 1

Non-flowering plants:

1. The plants without seeds and flowers are called cryptogams or non-flowering plants.
2. Cryptogams include algae, bryophytes and pteridophytes that do not produce seeds and flowers.
3. Cryptogams reproduce through the formation of spores

Examples:

Algae:

1. They are simple, autotrophic, aquatic plants that grow in moist stones, wood, and soils.
2. Vegetative reproduction takes place by fragmentation.
3. The form and size of algae vary from colonial forms such as Volvox filamentous forms Spirogyra and Ulothrix.
4. Asexual reproduction takes place through formation of motile zoospores, which on germination give rise to new plants.

Bryophytes:

1. The members of Kingdom Plantae are found in moist shaded regions of hilly areas.
2. These plants played an important role in the succession of plants on bare rocks and soils.
3. The plant body of bryophytes is more differentiated than algae.
4. The main plant body is gametophytic possesses roots, stem, and leaves-like structures.
5. Sexual reproduction takes place by fusion of male and female gametes.
6. The zygote undergoes rapid meiotic division to form a multicellular body called the sporophyte.
7. The cells of the sporophyte further divide by meiosis to give haploid spores which on germination give to the new plant.

Pteridophytes

1. The non-flowering plants are found in cool, damp, and sandy soils.
2. These non-flowering plants possess vascular tissues xylem and phloem.
3. The main plant body is sporophytic which is differentiated into true roots, stems, and leaves.
4. The leaves of pteridophytes can be small (microphylls) in Selaginella or can be large (macrophytes) in ferns.
5. The plant body sporangia are subtended by leaf-like appendages called sporophylls.
6. In Selaginella and Equisetum the sporophylls are arranged in compact structures called strobili or cones.
7. The cells in sporangia divide by meiosis to form haploid spores.
8. These spores germinate to form prothallus ( a small multicellular, free-living, and photosynthetic thalloid gametophytic body ), which grow to form sporophytic plant bodies.