Trends in Plant Evolution (from Mike Farabee, Maricopa Community College)

Several evolutionary trends within the plant kingdom have been noted. The monophyletic
nature of this kingdom is not in dispute, with the first major division being between
vascular ( those with xylem and phloem) and nonvascular plants. Within the vascular
plants we see increasing changes in the relationship between sporophyte and
gametophyte, culminating in flowering plants.

Developing from green algal ancestors, plants show a trend for reduction of the
complexity, size, and dominance of the gametophyte generation. In nonvascular plants
the gametophyte is the conspicuous, photosynthetic, free-living phase of the life cycle.
Conversely, the angiosperm gametophyte is reduced to between three and eight cells
(hence it is very inconspicuous) and is dependent on the free-living, photosynthetic
sporophyte for its nutrition.

Plants also developed and refined the root-shoot-leaf axis with its specialized conducting
cells of the xylem and phloem. The earliest vascular plants, such as Cooksonia and
Rhynia, were little more than naked (unleafed) photosynthetic stems.

Cooksonia
Some plants later developed secondary growth that produced wood. Numerous leaf
modifications are known, including "carnivorous" plants such as the Venus flytrap, as
well as plants that have reduced or lost leaves, such as Psilotum and the cacti.

A third trend is the development of the seed to promote the dormancy of the embryo. The
seed allows the plant to wait out harsh environmental conditions. With the development
of the seed during the Paleozoic era, plants became less prone to mass extinctions.

The fourth trend in plant evolution is the encasing of a seed within a fruit. The only plant
group that produces true fruit is the flowering plants, the angiosperms. Fruits serve to
protect the seed, as well as aid in seed dispersal.
Table 1. Plant classification.

Characteristics Examples and Uses

nonvascular plants, gametophyte

Bryophyta mosses, liverworts, hornworts
dominanted life cycle

naked photosynthetic stems, no Psilotum nudum, Tmesipteris;no

Psilophyta
leaves, free-sporing commercial uses

Lycopodium, a homosporous plant,

microphyll leaves, sporangia in
Lycophyta (the Selaginella, a heterosporous plant; no
strobili; more significant in the
club mosses) commercial uses except as ground
Paleozoic
cover in some areas

megaphyll leaves, sporangia in

Sphenophyta (=
tight cones; plants with jointed Equisetum, the scouring rush or
Equisetophyta;
stems; more significant in the horsetail; no commercial applications
the horsetails)
Paleozoic
 megaphyll pinnately compound
leaves, sporangia on underside of
Filicophyta
leaves, clumped in sori; leaves
(ferns)
arise by circinnate vernation
(uncoiling like a sheperd's crook)
Ornamental plants such as the Boston
fern; tree ferns; commercial
applications as ornamentals;
ecologically important plants in some
areas of the world

long, pinnately compound

megaphyll leaves with a leathery
Cycas revoluta, a common ornamental
feel arising from soft woode4d
known as the Sago palm;Zamia
Cycadophyta stems by circinnate vernation; new
floridana, only cycad native to the 48
(the cycads) leaves arise as a crown or whorl;
contiguous United States; commercial
reproduction by seeds produced in
uses as ornamental plants
female cones, pollen produced in
male cones

fan shaped, usually bilobed leaves

Ginkgo biloba, the maidenhair tree;
on a woody tree with long anmd
Ginkgophyta commercial uses as ornamental plants
short shoot anatomy; seeds
(the ginkoes) and allegedly as a memory aid in
produce a foul odor when mature;
herbal form
pollen elliptical, monoaperturate

needle-like or scale-like leaves

with thick cuticles and sunken
Pinus(wood, resin, pine straw, pine
stomata; soft wooded plants; seeds
nuts, paper); Taxus (yew) a natural
Coniferophyta lacking fruit, dispersede from
source for the anticancer drug taxol;
hardened cones; pollen can be
Douglas fir (wood); ornamental plants
bisaccate (Pinus) or lacking sacs
(Taxodium)

living plant group most closely

related to flowering plants; vessels
Ephedra (Mormon tea) source of
in some members of group;
Gnetophyta ephedrine; Gnetum; Welwitschia have
reproductive structures close to
no commercial uses
flowers; pollen elliptical eith
usually one aperture
Monocots: cereal grains form staple of
Magnoliophyta flowering plants (angiosperms) economy and diet; palms are used in
that encase their seeds within a many places as building material;
ripened ovary wall known as a ecologicalimpact as pioneer species in
fruit; fruits may be dry or fleshy, disturbed habitats;
single or multiple; two major
classes the monocots and dicots; Dicots: food crops such as beans,
xylem may include vessels as well peas; fibers from cotton used to make
 clothing and paper; illegal drugs such
as marijuana, cocaine, heroin; legal
as tracheids; range from
products such as chocolate, tea, and
herbaceous annuals to periennel
coffee; Nicotiana leaves make tobacco
trees
a dangerous legal "drug"; ornamental
plants