VASCULAR PLANT

The 'vascular plants', 'tracheophytes' or 'higher plants' are plants in the kingdom Plantae that have specialized tissues for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant. Vascular plants include the ferns, clubmosses, horsetails, flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms. Scientific names are ''Tracheophyta'' and ''Tracheobionta'', but neither is very widely used. Nonvascular plants include both earlier-derived lineages in Plantae (mosses, hornworts, and liverworts) and members of other kingdoms (the various algea).
The vascular plants are set apart in two main ways:
# Vascular plants have vascular tissues, which circulate resources through the plant. This feature allows vascular plants to evolve to a larger size than non-vascular plants, which lack these specialized conducting tissues and are therefore restricted to relatively small sizes.
# In vascular plants, the principal generation phase is the ''sporophyte'', which is diploid with two sets of chromosomes per cell. In non-vascular plants, the principal generation phase is often the ''gametophyte'', which is haploid with one set of chromosomes per cell. See also ''alternation of generations'' and ''life history''.
Water transport happens in either xylem or phloem: xylem carries water and inorganic solutes upward toward the leaves from the roots, while phloem carries organic solutes throughout the plant.
Group of plants having lignified conducting tissue (xylem vessels or tracheids).

Contents

Members

See also

Members

★ Spore-bearing vascular plants

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★ †Rhyniophyta—rhyniophytes

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★ †Zosterophyllophyta—zosterophylls

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★ Lycopodiophyta—clubmosses

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★ †Trimerophytophyta—trimerophytes

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★ Pteridophyta—ferns, whisk ferns and horsetails

★ Seed-bearing vascular plants - Superdivision Spermatophyta

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★ †Pteridospermatophyta—seed ferns

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★ Pinophyta—conifers

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★ Cycadophyta—cycads

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★ Ginkgophyta—ginkgo

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★ Gnetophyta—gnetae

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★ Magnoliophyta—flowering plants

See also

★ Fern allies

★ Non-vascular plant