Phanerogam

Phanerogam [ Botany ]
Synonym: Spermatophyte, Seed plant

Dictionary of botanic terminology
index of names


	*The Phanerogams (Also called spermatophytes or seed plants) comprise those plants that reproduces by means of seeds not spores.* *Any plant of the phylum Spermatophyta.*

The term *"Phanerogam"* literally means "open wedding" and refers to the fact that reproduction in these plants was clearly understood unlike the case in lower plants (Cryptogams) in which it was for a long time something of a mystery. Any plant of the phylum Spermatophyta, the higher plants that produce seeds. Spermatophyte have a reproductive cycle which develops pollen that results in seeds containing the embryo of a new plant. They are divided into two smaller groups: the Gymnosperms and the Angiosperms. Spermatophytes are included in the embryophytes or land plants, which also includes various groups that reproduce by spores, such as mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and ferns.

Advertising

Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994