GYMNOSPERMS

Ginkgophytes

Conifers

Gnetophytes

Cycads

EVOLUTION of NAKED SEED-PLANTS

Gymnosperm Life-Cycle
Pine (Pinus) Life-Cycle

Pollen Cones

Ovulate Cones

Female Male

Pine Life Cycle

Pine
(Pinus)

Pollen Cones
and

Ovulate
and

Old Seed Cones

PINE LIFE CYCLE Pollen Cone

Pollen Cone Cluster

Pollen Cone

Pollen Cone Scales

Long. Sect. Pollen Cone

Pine Pollen

Pine Pollen Grains with Male Gametophyte

PINE LIFE CYCLE Ovulate Cone

Ovulate Cone

Cone Scale with Ovules

Ovulate Cone with Ovuliferous Scales & Bracts

Two Cone Scale Complexes Each with Ovuliferous Scale and Bract

Ovule with Megaspore Mother Cell

Pine Ovule with Female Gametophyte

(=Megasporangial Wall)

(Female Gametophyte)

Ovuliferous Scale

Pine Seed

Spruce (Picea) Winged Seed (Miocene) Pine (Pinus) Ovuliferous Scale with Two Winged Seeds

Pine Seed and Seedlings

The Conifer Cone

Ovulate Cone

Pollen Cone

Pine Pollen and Ovulate Cones

cone scale

pollen cone scale

bract

Pine Pollen Cone (Simple Strobilus)

bract ovuliferous scale

Cone-Scale Complex

Pollen Cone Scale Not = Ovuliferous Scale Bract at Base of Pollen Cone = Bract Subtending Each Ovuliferous Scale Pollen Cone =

WHAT ?
Pine Ovulate Cone (Compound Strobilus)

= One Cone-Scale Complex of Ovulate Cone

The Cordaite Strobilus

Forerunner of the Conifer Cone

Ovulate Strobilus

Pollen Strobilus

In the Cordaites Both Ovulate and Pollen Strobili Were Compound !

Ovulate Dwarf Shoots in Late Paleozoic Conifers

Forerunners of the Cone-Scale Complex (Ovuliferous Scale & Bract) in the Ovulate Cones of Modern Conifers dwarf shoot

bract

Major Groups of Gymnosperms

Seed-Plants
(Spermatophytes)

I. CONIFEROPHYTE SEED-PLANTS Ginkgophytes Coniferophytes +Cordaites Conifers Gnetophytes II. CYCADOPHYTE SEED-PLANTS +Pteridosperms (Seed-Ferns) +Glossopterids Cycads +Cycadeoids Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)
+Extinct

SEED-PLANTS
Coniferophytic
(1) Early members tall trees (2) Wood dense, with small rays (3) Leaves simple, often reduced (4) Sporangia on stems (cauline) (5) Compound strobili common (6) Seeds unitegmic, bilateral; never cupulate (7) Integument 2-parted (fused bract pair) (8) Archaeopterid-Derived

Cycadophytic
(1) Early members short, often unbranched (2) Wood loose, with large rays (3) Leaves compound or 2o simple (4) Sporangia leaf-associated (5) Compound strobili none (6) Seeds unitegmic and cupulate or bitegmic, radiosymmetric (7) Integument multi-parted (fused branches) (8) Aneurophyte-Derived

Gymnosperms Angiosperms
Conifers, Gnetophytes Gingophytes, +Cordaites +Cycadeoids Cycads +Glossopterids +Seed-Ferns

Seed Plants

Coniferophyte Gymnosperms

Cycadophyte Gymnosperms

Seedless Vascular Plants Ferns

+Progymnosperms

Ligno phytes Lycophytes

Lycopods

Horsetails
+Trimerophytes

+Zosterophylls

Psilotum
+Extinct

+Rhyniophytes

CONIFEROPHYTIC SEED-PLANTS
Ginkgophytes Coniferophytes (Cordaites & Conifers) Gnetophytes

(1) Early members tall trees (2) Wood dense, with small rays (3) Leaves simple, often reduced (4) Sporangia on stems (cauline) (5) Compound strobili common (6) Seeds unitegmic, bilateral; never cupulate (7) Integument 2-parted (fused bract pair) (8) Archaeopterid-Derived

GINKGOPHYTES
Ginkgo (Maidenhair Tree) Leaves broad, with dichotomous veins Sperm motile, multiflagellate Seeds with fleshy outer seed-coat layer, foul smelling Habit Fossil Stumps

Leaves

Seeds

Extant & Fossil Ginkgo Leaves

Modern Ginkgo Leaf

Fossil Ginkgo Leaves

Coniferophytes
Cordaites Conifers
I. Primitively tall, much branched trees (secondarily shrubs); often with resin (or mucilage) canals.

II. Both microsporangiate (pollen) and megasporangiate (ovululate/seed) structures in strobili (cones). III. Sporangia fundamentally cauline, i.e., on stems (not on leaves), part of a dwarf shoot system of branches or its highly reduced and modified homologue; each dwarf shoot obvious or highly modified and fused to form an ovuliferous scale; dwarf shoot or reduced ovuliferous scale each subtended by a bract and forming compound strobili (pollen cones simple in conifers, thought to be homologous to cone-scale complex of ovulate cones).

Cordaites

Strobili Among Vegetative Leaves

Ovulate Strobilus

Single Strobilus

Pollen Strobilus

Cordaite Vegetative Structures

Leaf (Cordaites)

Septate Pith in a Coal Ball Stem/Wood Permineralization

(Mesoxylon)

Pith Casts
(Artisia)

Cordaite Reproductive Structures

Strobilus or Fertile Shoot

(Cordianthus) Compression (left) & Coal Ball Permineralization (right)

Seed
(Cardiocarpus)

Conifers
(Fossil Conifers)

Walchia
(Late Carboniferous-Early Permian)

Araucaria heterophylla
(Norfork Island Pine)

Conifer Cuticle
(Permian)

Prepollen of Early Conifers

Functions as Pollen Gains but Morphologically Resembles Spores
(Potonieisporites novicus) Late Carboniferous (Upper Stephanian) of Germany

PREPOLLEN occurs as the pollen grains of certain primitive seed-plants. It usually has a Trilete Tetrad Scar and presumably Germinated Proximately (i.e., on the side that was toward the center of the pollen tetrad). TRUE POLLEN GRAINS usually have one or more Apertures (thin areas in the pollen wall not formed due to pressure from the other pollen grains in the pollen tetrad) rather than tetrad scars and usually Germinate Distally (i.e., on the side that was away from the center of the pollen tetrad).

Triassic Petrified Forest

Araucarioxylon
(Arizona)

Triassic Petrified Forest

Araucarioxylon
(Arizona)

Jurassic Petrified Forest

Araucarioxylon
(Patagonia, Argentina)

The Life of a Pine

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