The Selaginellaceae
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Description: Brief description of this monogeneric family of terrestrial or epiphytic heterosporous, protostelic vascular plants with about 700 species and images of three Hawaiian species.
Non-Flowering Plant Families, UH Botany Lycopodiophyta (Microphyllophyta). The Selaginellaceae are terrestrial or epiphytic heterosporous, protostelic vascular plants comprising a single genus and about 700 species. The free-living sporophytic plant body is often somewhat dichotomously branching, consisting of a rhizome with adventitious roots, and an aerial portion with numerous, closely spaced, spirally disposed or 4-ranked and often dimorphic microphyllous leaves, each with a single vascular trace and each with a minute basal flap of tissue called a ligule. The fertile axis bears two kinds of sporangia. Megasporangia produce four large, megaspores that give rise to female gametophytes, and except for a small pad of tissue that bears archegonia, the entire gametophyte remains confined within the megaspore wall. Microsporangia produce hundreds of tiny microspores that give rise to male gametophytes, each bearing an antheridium contained within the wall of the microspore. Bursting of the microspore wall releases biflagellated sperm that must travel through a film of water in order to reach the egg of an archegonium of a nearby megagametophyte and initiate the zygote that may develop into a new sporophyte individual.
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WEBSITE Info
| Page title: | Non-Flowering Plant Families, UH Botany |
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| IP-address: | 128.171.224.100 |
WHOIS Info
| NS | Name Servers: DNS1.HAWAII.EDU 128.171.3.13 DNS2.HAWAII.EDU 128.171.1.1 |
| WHOIS | |
| Date | activated: 27-Oct-1986 last updated: 24-May-2011 expires: 31-Jul-2014 |