Angiosperm

∞ generated and posted on 2016.08.31 ∞

These are the flowering plants.

Angiosperms are also fruit-bearing (uniquely), seed-bearing (which they share with conifers), and vascular (which they share with conifers and ferns). Formally angiosperms are described as members of division Angiospermae as well as division Magnoliophyta. Their seeds are both fertilized and develop inside of ovaries, and these ovaries mature into a substantial component of fruits.

The angiosperms are not only the most diverse division (or phylum) of plants, they are also the most familiar and the source of most of our food. Indeed, some might find it surprising that not all plants flower, even when reproducing, and furthermore that some very familiar plants that do not flower terribly conspicuously, such as grasses, nevertheless do flower. The non-flowering plants are limited to mosses, the ferns, the conifers as well as a few additional not as familiar species. When you give someone a flower you off course are gifting them the reproductive structure of an angiosperm.

Phenotypically, but less so phylogenetically, common flowering plants can be distinguished into those that are monocots and those which instead are dicots, which differ in terms of the number embryonic leaves (one versus two, respectively). The grasses, lilies, and palms are monocots, for example, while roses, oak trees, and other "broad-leafed" plants are all dicots. Gymnosperms (i.e., conifers), though also seed-bearing plants are not flowering plants so cannot be classified as either monocots or dicots.


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