Seedless Plants

Mosses and Liverworts

Ferns, Horsetails, and Club

Mosses

Mosses and Liverworts

Small

Live on bark, rocks,

and soil

No vascular

system

Must live in places

that are wet

No true roots,

stems, or leaves

Mosses

Liverworts

Mosses and Liverworts

Live together in large groups

Covering soil or rocks in a mat of

tiny green plants

Each moss has rhizoids (root-

like structures)

Rhizoids help anchor the plant

Reproduce by spores

Importance of Mosses and

Liverworts:

Pioneer plants - usually the first

plants to inhabit a new environment.

Form a thin layer of soil when they

die.

They help hold the soil in place

which prevents erosion.

Nesting material for birds.

Peat moss can be burned as fuel.

Ferns, Horsetails, and

Club Mosses:

Grow tall

Have vascular

systems

Reproduce by

spores

Ferns

Sori on

underside of

fronds

Ferns

Can grow almost

anywhere.

Have an

underground stem

called a rhizome.

Leaves are called

fronds.

Horsetails

Horsetails

Small vascular plants.

Grow less than 1.3 meters tall.

Grow in wet, marshy places.

Stems are hollow and contain

cilia.

Pioneers used them to scrub

pots and pans.

Club Mosses

25 cm tall.

Grow in woodlands.

Unlike other mosses, they have vascular tissue.

Importance of Seedless

Vascular Plants

Help form soil when they die.

Also hold soil in place to prevent erosion.

Ferns serve as house plants.

Some are cooked and eaten.

Formed coal.

Used as folk medicine