Before the evolution of flower flora , a broad variety of plants that reproduce by spores or primitive seeds colonized the earth . Many are still far-flung today , testimonial to their hardiness and successful adaptation to difficult condition . Algae and fungus kingdom are the oldest of all plant , but moss , fern and horsetails have been around since before the dinosaurs acquire . Gymnosperms , the conifers and other retinal cone - bearing flora , are the most complex non - flowering plant .

Mosses And Liverworts

Known scientifically as bryophytes , moss and liverworts are small plant that miss genuine roots , having only strand that anchor them to the soil . Liverworts have flat , lobate bodies and are often found as weed in greenhouse sess . Mosses are often branched , with small , one - cellphone stocky leaves .

Lichens

Lichens are the merchandise of a symbiotic , mutually beneficial , relationship between a fungus and an alga or grim - greenish bacterium . The fungus provides structure , the alga or bacteria makes food using photosynthesis . The partnership has produced a wide variety of lichens , found from au naturel rock music to pelting wood and gelid frigidness to hot deserts .

Ferns

Ferns commonly have feather - like fronds , though some have leathery , shoulder strap - shaped leaves . They reproduce by spores borne on the underside of the leaf airfoil , though many case may also extend their orbit by runners . Though usually affiliate with moist woods , some ferns inhabit stony or desert arena .

Horsetails

Horsetails have jointed stems , sometimes with lock of leave at each node . The spore are bear in strobile - like structures at the tips of some of the stems .

Conifers

Conifers are the tallest and most square of the non - flowering plants , including redwood , pines , fir and spruce . They bear seeds protected within a cone cell and have acerate leaf - comparable leaves . All are wind - pollinated . The cones and the woody trunk that contains a vascular system of tubing that ecstasy water and nutrients allow conifer to inhabit drier areas than moss , ferns and horsetail .

Cycads

Cycads appear , superficially , reasonably like fern but have pissed , leathery leave and short trunks . Some are known as " sago laurel wreath , " but are unrelated to true laurel wreath . They are actually more nearly related to conifers , having true germ carry on cum heading folio . The theme , however , are mainly made up of warehousing tissue rather than honest wood .

Ginkgo

A living dodo , a souvenir of 270 million yr old forests , the Ginkgo is a unmarried genus of tree diagram most nearly related to the cycads . Ginkgo biloba , the individual species found in the northern cerebral hemisphere , is native to a minuscule area of China , while less than ten specie are found in the southerly hemisphere . It is often called " maidenhair tree " from the lover embodiment of the leaves , standardised to the maidenhair fern fern . There are separate manlike and female trees , with the distaff carriage a foul sense fruit . Only manful trees are normally sold .

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