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Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (/ ˌ æ n dʒ i ə ˈ s p ər m iː /). [5] [6] The term 'angiosperm' is derived from the Greek words ἀγγεῖον / angeion ('container, vessel') and σπέρμα / sperma ('seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit.
The fifth extant division is the flowering plants, also known as angiosperms or magnoliophytes, the largest and most diverse group of spermatophytes: Angiosperms , the flowering plants, possess seeds enclosed in a fruit , unlike gymnosperms.
The botanical term angiosperm, or flowering plant, comes from the Greek angeíon (ἀγγεῖον; 'bottle, vessel') and spérma (σπέρμα; 'seed'); in 1690, the term Angiospermae was coined by Paul Hermann, albeit in reference to only a small subset of the species that are known as angiosperms, today.
The angiosperms ("vessel seeds") are the only group to fully enclose the seed, in a carpel. [citation needed] Fully enclosed seeds opened up a new pathway for plants to follow: that of seed dormancy. The embryo, completely isolated from the external atmosphere and hence protected from desiccation, could survive some years of drought before ...
Angiosperm seeds are "enclosed seeds", produced in a hard or fleshy structure called a fruit that encloses them for protection. Some fruits have layers of both hard and fleshy material. In gymnosperms, no special structure develops to enclose the seeds, which begin their development "naked" on the bracts of cones.
The tree-like Archaeopteris, ancestral to the gymnosperms, and the giant cladoxylopsid trees had true wood. These are the oldest known trees of the world's first forests. Prototaxites was the fruiting body of an enormous fungus that stood more than 8 meters tall. By the end of the Devonian, the first seed-forming plants had appeared.
Seed plants include two clades with living members, the gymnosperms and the angiosperms or flowering plants. In gymnosperms, the ovules or seeds are not further enclosed. In angiosperms, they are enclosed within the carpel. Angiosperms typically also have other, secondary structures, such as petals, which together form a flower.
Flower of Liriodendron tulipifera, a Mesangiosperm. Mesangiospermae is a clade that contains the majority of flowering plants (angiosperms). Mesangiosperms are therefore known as the core angiosperms, in contrast to the three orders of earlier-diverging species known as the basal angiosperms: Nymphaeales (including water lilies), Austrobaileyales (including star anise), and Amborellales.