Identify the pair of heterosporous pteridophytes among the following:
- Equisetum and Salvinia
- Lycopodium and Selaginella
- Selaginella and Salvinia
- Psilotum and Salvinia
Solution
Pteridophytes are the true land plants and show the following salient features:
- They have predominant sporophytic generation and diploid nature.
- The gametophyte is independent, called prothallus in ferns.
- They have evolved vascular tissue for conduction of water and minerals.
- Some genera, like Selaginella, Salvinia, Isoetes, Azolla, etc. produced two types of spores, microspores and megaspores. This is called heterospory. This gave birth to seed habit.
Asked in: NEET 2023 (All India)