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Botanists define vascular plants by three primary characteristics: Vascular plants have vascular tissues which distribute resources through the plant. Two kinds of vascular tissue occur in plants: xylem and phloem. Phloem and xylem are closely associated with one another and are typically located immediately adjacent to each other in the plant.
Tracheids were the main conductive cells found in early vascular plants. In the first 140–150 million years of vascular plant evolution, tracheids were the only type of conductive cells found in fossils of plant xylem tissues. [5] Ancestral tracheids did not contribute significantly to structural support, as can be seen in extant ferns. [6]
Pteridophyte life cycle. Just as with bryophytes and spermatophytes (seed plants), the life cycle of pteridophytes involves alternation of generations. This means that a diploid generation (the sporophyte, which produces spores) is followed by a haploid generation (the gametophyte or prothallus, which produces gametes). Pteridophytes differ ...
Genera such as Rhynia have a similar life-cycle but have simple tracheids and so are a kind of vascular plant. [44] It was assumed that the gametophyte dominant phase seen in bryophytes used to be the ancestral condition in terrestrial plants, and that the sporophyte dominant stage in vascular plants was a derived trait.
Plant structures, including, roots, buds, and shoots, that develop in unusual locations are called adventitious. Such structures are common in vascular plants. [citation needed] Adventitious roots and buds usually develop near the existing vascular tissues so that they can connect to the xylem and phloem. However, the exact location varies greatly.
in secondary xylem, laid down by a meristem called the vascular cambium in woody plants; as part of a stelar arrangement not divided into bundles, as in many ferns. In transitional stages of plants with secondary growth, the first two categories are not mutually exclusive, although usually a vascular bundle will contain primary xylem only.
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Among living plants, this type of stele is found only in the stems of ferns. Most seed plant stems possess a vascular arrangement which has been interpreted as a derived siphonostele, and is called a eustele – in this arrangement, the primary vascular tissue consists of vascular bundles, usually in one or two rings around the pith. [12]