To Seed or Not to Seed
There are two types of vascular plants:
cryptogams or nonseed plants and
phanerogams or plants with seeds.
Doing More With Spores
Vascular plants like
ferns and horsetails don't have seeds, they reproduce with spores! These plants have two stages, the
gametophyte stage and the
sporophyte stage.
The sporophyte stage is what you are probably most familiar with. This is when the fern has fronds with
spores on the underside.
The spores are released and fall to the ground where they grow into something called a
prothallus. This is the gametophyte stage. The prothallus produces a sperm and an egg cell. The sperm fertilizes the egg, and the fertilized egg grows into a new fern which will produce spores and start the process all over again!
Planting a Seed
One of the major differences between nonseed plants (cryptogams) and seed plants (phanerogams) are the seeds! Each seed has food-storage tissue or
sporophyte and a hard protective shell or
seed coat. Seeds protect new growth better than spores. They also can be spread over a greater distance than spores when animals like birds and squirrels carry them from place to place.
Image Credits: Clipart.com
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