Gymnosperms.ppt

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Gnetales – Gnetophytes Welwitschia mirabilis -a strange plant native to deserts of Namibia, sw Africa! -2 big curly leaves! Major groups of gymnosperms Cycadophyta – Cycads squat, unbranched trunk (little wood), usually pinnately compound leaves loss of axillary branching dioecious: male and female plants male and female strobili (cones) motile, multiflagellate sperm! (ancestral) coralloid roots with nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria Major groups of gymnosperms Zamia Cycas Cycadophyta – Cycads ca. 11 genera (130