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- Terrestrial plants or Embryophyta, got a series of adaptations for survival out of water.
- All embryophyta have multicellular embryos, fed by a placenta.
- All embryophyta have an haplo-diploid cycle, where one generation produces spores and then the next produces embryos.
- The spores are clones of the plant, the embryo is the product of sperm and eggs.
- Both embryos and spores are protected against desiccation by specific envelopes.
- All embryophyta use a kind of pores to breathe. The most modern use stomes, designed to open and close in a constant cycle.
- All embryophyta can absorb ultraviolet light.
- They also adapted themselves to tolerate high concentrations of oxygen, which is much more abundant in air than in water.
- Most embryophyta have an internal vascular system that helps them move water and nutrients up and down the plant.
- This system is composed by xylem and phloem.
- Many embryophyta have a symbiotic relationship with fungi.
- Fungi help them to absorb the nutrients from earth, while the plants pay them with products made by photosynthesis.
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| Mosses; photo by Andy/Andrew Fogg, cc-by |
Ferns; photo by Miguel Vieira, cc-by |
Stomata; photo by Biophotos, cc-by |
Sources:
-The Tree of Life, A Phylogenetic Classification, Guillaume Lecointre and Hervé Le Gullader, 2006
-Euzomo - http://euzomo.es/flora
-APG III, 2009, An Update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Classification for the Orders and Families of Flowering Plants
-The Tree of Life - http://www.tolweb.org
Citation: García, A.I. 2015. The Tree Of Nature (Online) at http://thetreeofnature.com
