Seed production is very important to the success of plants. The plant world is composed of the cone-bearing and fruit-bearing plants. These plants differ in their own seed structures, leaf forms and pollination procedures. Cone-bearing plants are easily recognized by their cones and needlelike leaves and fruit-bearing plants by their flowers and fruits. Cone-bearing plants are called gymnosperms and fruit-bearing plants have been termed angiosperms.
Gymnosperm Attributes
A gymnosperm’s seeds have been open to the environment. The word “gymnosperm” means “naked seed” and the seeds aren’t enclosed inside fruit, but are rather vulnerable or around the scales of cones, such as a pine cone. The leaf structures of gymnosperms and angiosperms differ. Gymnosperms, or cone-bearers, create needlelike leaves with a thick waxy coating. Cone-bearers are woody evergreens, such as spruces, pines and firs and do not lose their leaves.
Angiosperm Attributes
Angiosperms seeds are enclosed in fruit and comprise flowering plants. The male flowers are usually small, while female flowers are larger. Once these flowering plants have been pollinated, the flower and its reproductive parts dry up and fall away and the plant grows fruit or enclosed seeds. Flowering plants often have flat leaves with veins. All these are deciduous plants, meaning the leaves change colour in the autumn and drop from the tree. The trees grow new leaves each spring. Some flowering plants do preserve their leaves, like live oak and rhododendron.
Differences in Pollination
Pollination differs for cone-bearing and fruit-bearing plants. Cone-bearing gymnosperm plants have been pollinated by the wind, while fruit-bearing plants are usually pollinated by bees and other insects that carry pollen from plant to plant. Cone bearers’ female cones may take years to mature, while flowering plants mature faster than cone-bearers, meaning the flower-bearing angiosperms are able to produce more seeds. This is the reason why flower-bearers make up the biggest percentage of the plant kingdom.
Types of Gymnosperms
Gymnosperms consist of four categories or phyla that include cycads, ginkgo, conifers and gnetophytes. Conifers are the greatest collection or phyla of gymnosperms and comprise fir, spruce, cedar, cedar and redwood trees. Cycads are composed of plants that are cone-bearing, but create palm-like leaves. Cycads grow mostly in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Ginkgo consists of plant that’s indigenous to China and gnetophytes are plants that develop deep tap roots and above ground leaves and cones.