Gymnosperms are Seed Plants
Gymnosperms have seeds but not fruits or flowers. Gymnos means naked, sperm means seed: thus the term gymnosperm = naked seeds. Gymnosperms developed during the Paleozoic Era and became the dominant seed plant group during the early Mesozoic Era, as shown in Figure 1. The ancestors of gymnosperms were some now-extinct type of heterosporous fern or related group. There are 700 living species of gymnosperms placed into four divisions: conifers (such as pines and spruce), cycads (such as the sago palm, Cycas revoluta), ginkgos (the maidenhair tree, Ginkgo biloba), and gnetophytes (such as Mormon tea, Ephedra).
Label: biological, divesity, plants, seed
