Cryptogramic Vascular Plants

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Introduction
Plants are autotrophs which make their own, organic nutrients, to sustain themselves, through a complex process known as photosynthesis. The plant kingdom is diverse and is made of plants of different biological diversity (Raven et al. 2005). Cryptograms or Seedless plants are vascular plants that do not produce seeds for dispersal but reproduce by windblown spores. In seedless plants the gametophyte and sporophyte are both independent phases in the plant’s life cycle. Like all vascular plants, cryptograms have true roots, stems and leaves. The sperm are flagellated and require water for reproduction. These plants are therefore limited to moist areas. It is hypothesized that many of the seedless vascular plants were once tree-sized at a point in time ("Lycopodium" September 28, 2012).

Table 1: Various plants within the plantae kingdom and their key characteristic/s.

Cryptograms and Vascular Tissue
The word vascular is synonymous with the word transport. Vascular tissue is the complex network of transport present within plants that help transport water and organic nutrients throughout the plants body. With vascular plants approximately 93% of their tissue is vascular. There are two main types of vascular tissue, the phloem and the xylem (Gregory).
Xylem
The xylem is composed of two types of elongated water-conducting cells. Tracheids along with fibres and parenchyma cells make up the xylem. The xylem’s function in the plant is to transport water and salts through the plant ("Vascular Tissues in Plants" 2004).
Phloem
The phloem unlike the xylem consist of living tissue called sieve tube elements, which consist of the sieve tube and a companion cell. The sieve tube elements along with sclereids and parenchyma make...

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...n Trinidad and Tobago. I would strongly recommend a checklist be done as soon as possible by the National Herbarium of Trinidad and Tobago. The limitations in this research are numerous

Works Cited

Peter Raven, Ray Evert, and Susan Eichhorn. 2005. “Biology of Plants.” New York: Freeman and Company.
Palaeos.org, "Lycopodium." Last modified September 28, 2012. Accessed November 19, 2013. http://www.palaeos.org/Lycopodium.
Gregory, Michael. The Biology Web, "Seedless Plants." Accessed November 19, 2013. http://faculty.clintoncc.suny.edu/faculty/michael.gregory/files/bio 102/bio 102 lectures/seedless plants/seedless plants.htm.
"Vascular Tissues in Plants," National Biology Support Service (NBSS) (2004): 1-2,
Radboud University Nijmegen, "Lycophyta (Lycopodium, Selaginella)." Accessed November 20, 2013. http://www.vcbio.science.ru.nl/en/virtuallessons/lycophyta/.

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