The spermatophytes (also known as phanerogams) comprise those plants that produce seeds. They are included in the embryophytes or land plants, which also includes various groups that reproduce by spores, such as mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and ferns. Divisions Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Hepaticophyta - liverworts Anthocerotophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants Adiantum pedatum (a fern... A seed is the ripened ovule of gymnosperm or angiosperm plants. ... Divisions Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Hepaticophyta - liverworts Anthocerotophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants The embryophytes are the most familiar group... The term spore have several different meanings in biology. ... Subclasses Andreaeidae Sphagnidae Tetraphidae Polytrichidae Buxbaumiidae Bryidae Archidiidae Moss on a rock Mosses belong to the non-vascular plants. ... Orders Need to be entered Liverworts are non-vascular plants in the Class Marchantiopsida, formerly known as the Hepaticae. ... Hornworts (or horned liverworts) are a group of non-vascular plants comprising the class Anthocerotae. ... Classes Marattiopsida Osmundopsida Gleicheniopsida Pteridopsida A fern, or pteridophyte, is any one of a group of some twenty thousand species of plants classified in the Division Pteridophyta, formerly known as Filicophyta. ...

Seed-bearing plants were traditionally divided into angiosperms, or flowering plants, and gymnosperms, which includes the gnetae, cycads, ginkgo, and conifers. Angiosperms are now thought to have evolved from a gymnosperm ancestor, which would make the gymnosperm taxon paraphyletic. Modern cladistics attempts to define taxa that are monophyletic, traceable to a common ancestor and inclusive therefore of all descendants of that common ancestor. Although not a monophyletic taxon, gymnosperm is still widely used to distinguish the four taxa of non-flowering, seed-bearing plants from the angiosperms. Classes Magnoliopsida - Dicots Liliopsida - Monocots The flowering plants (also angiosperms or Magnoliophyta) are one of the major groups of modern plants, comprising those that produce seeds in specialized reproductive organs called flowers, where the ovulary or carpel is enclosed. ... Gymnosperms are seed-bearing, vascular plants. ... Paraphyletic - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Greek clados = branch) or phylogenetic systematics is a branch of biology that determines the evolutionary relationships of living things based on derived similarities. ... In phylogenetics, a group is monophyletic (Greek: of one stem) if all organisms in that group are known to have developed from a common ancestral form, and all descendants of that form are included in the group. ...

A traditional classification grouped all the seed plants together as follows:

• Division Spermatophyta
  • Cycadopsida, the cycads
  • Ginkgoopsida, the ginkgo
  • Pinopsida, the conifers, ("Coniferopsida")
  • Gnetopsida, including Gnetum, Welwitschia, Ephedra
  • Magnoliopsida, the flowering plants, or Angiospermopsida

In addition to the taxa listed above, the fossil record contains evidence of many extinct taxa of seed plants. The so-called "seed ferns" (Pteridospermae) were one of the earliest successful groups of land plants, and forests dominated by seed ferns were prevalent in the late Paleozoic. Glossopteris was the most prominent tree genus in the ancient southern supercontinent of Gondwana during the Permian period. By the Triassic period, seed ferns had declined in importance, and gymnosperms were predominant until the Cretaceous, when the Angiosperms became predominant. Families Cycadaceae cycas family Stangeriaceae stangeria family Zamiaceae zamia family Cycads are an ancient group of seed plants characterized by a large crown of compound leaves and a stout trunk. ... Binomial name Ginkgo biloba L. The Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), sometimes also known as the Maidenhair Tree, is a unique tree with no close living relatives. ... Orders & Families Cordaitales † Pinales   Pinaceae - Pine family   Araucariaceae - Araucaria family   Podocarpaceae - Yellow-wood family   Sciadopityaceae - Umbrella-pine family   Cupressaceae - Cypress family   Cephalotaxaceae - Plum-yew family   Taxaceae - Yew family Vojnovskyales † Voltziales † The conifers, division Pinophyta, are one of 13 or 14 division level taxa within the Kingdom Plantae. ... taxa: Gnetales Welwitschiales Ephedrales The plant division Gnetophyta or gnetophytes comprise three related families of woody plants grouped in the gymnosperms, a paraphyletic group of seed plant divisions. ... Species see text Gnetum is a genus of about 30-35 species of gymnosperms. ... Binomial name Welwitschia mirabilis Hook. ... Species See text Ephedra is a genus of gymnosperm shrubs, the only genus in the family Ephedraceae and order Ephedrales. ... Orders see text Dicotyledons or dicots are flowering plants whose seed contains two embryonic leaves or cotyledons. ... Classes Magnoliopsida - Dicots Liliopsida - Monocots The flowering plants (also angiosperms) are a major group of land plants. ... In biology and ecology, extinction is the ceasing of existence of a species or group of species. ... The Paleozoic is a major division of the geologic timescale, one of four geologic eras. ... Glossopteris (Greek glossa, meaning tongue, because the leaves were tongue-shaped) is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct order of seed ferns known as Glossopteridales. ... The coniferous Coast Redwood, the tallest tree species on earth A tree can be defined as a large, perennial, woody plant. ... In biology, a genus (plural genera) is a grouping in the classification of living organisms having one or more related and morphologically similar species. ... In geology, a supercontinent is a land mass comprising more than one continental core, or craton. ... Pangea broke into the two supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana The southern supercontinent Gondwana (originally Gondwanaland) included most of the landmasses which make up todays continents of the southern hemisphere, including Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Arabia, Australia-New Guinea and New Zealand. ... The Permian is a geologic period that extends from about 280 to 248 million years before the present (mya). ... The Triassic is a geologic period that extends from about 245 to 202 million years ago (mya). ... The Cretaceous period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic period (about 146 MYA) to the beginning of the Paleocene epoch of the Tertiary period (65. ...

Phylogeny of the Spermatophyta

A more modern classification splits these groups into separate divisions (sometimes under the Superdivision Spermatophyta): Phylogeny of the Spermatophyta - diagram by User:MPF File links The following pages link to this file: Plant Spermatophyte ... Phylogeny of the Spermatophyta - diagram by User:MPF File links The following pages link to this file: Plant Spermatophyte ...

• Cycadophyta, the cycads
• Ginkgophyta, the ginkgo
• Pinophyta, the conifers
• Gnetophyta, including Gnetum, Welwitschia, Ephedra
• Magnoliophyta, the flowering plants