Sphenophyta

Yesterday's trees, today's horsetails
Three hundred million years ago, a walk through a lowland forest or swamp, or along a riverbank or floodplain, would have revealed a great variety of trees, even though the familiar conifers and flowering plants of today were not present. Prominent among the trees of the time, and also common in the shrubbery, were plants in the Sphenophyta, distinguished by their straight stems with branches or leaves arranged in regular whorls. Some Paleozoic sphenophytes grew up to thirty meters tall (nearly 100 feet).

Today, the sphenophytes consist of only one genus, Equisetum, with about thirty living species known worldwide. A few species, like the tropical Mexican species pictured above, may reach ten feet in height, but most living species are small, weedy plants -- remnants of former glory. Equisetum are known as horsetails, foxtails, or scouring rushes -- this last name is derived from the fact that Equisetum stores granules of silica within its cells, making it an effective tool for scrubbing pots and polishing wood. These plants are sometimes pestiferous weeds, and are somewhat toxic to livestock, but they also have medicinal value:
Equisetum was used in traditional native American and Ukrainian medicine to stop bleeding, and recent research has shown that Equisetum is also effective as a diuretic.

1. Phylum Sphenophyta ( Horsetails ) Pagador , Sittie Aina Sarip

2. Objectives To know more about this phylum. To know its phylogeny. To be able to understand there life cycle and habitat.

3. Equisetum of 15 species remains of this once large group woody trees of Carboniferous Age forest. Equisetum is one of the easiest plants to recognize. It has jointed, ribbed and hollow stems impregnated with so much silica that are rasping noise is heard when stems are rubbed together. They are most often found in sites that are moist for at least part of the growing season.

4. horsetails; have jointed stems and tiny scale like leaves at joints, spores produced in strobilus at tip of stem . sometimes called scouring rushes due to pioneer women using them to wash dishes , Phylum Sphenophyta

5. Classification Kingdom: Plantae Division: Sphenophyta Class: Equisetae Family:Equisetaceae Scientific name: Equisetum

6. Horsetails (Equisetum hyemale ), a primitive vascular plant group of the Carboniferous Period (300 million years ago) with jointed stems and a terminal spore cone (strobilus). They are also called "scouring rushes" because the silica-impregnated stems were used to clean pots and pans. Home - Other Field Guides Kingdom - Plants - Plantae Division - Horsetails - Equisetophyta Class - Horsetails - Equisetopsida Order - Horsetails - Equisetales Family - Horsetails - Equisetaceae Species - Rough Horsetail - Equisetum hyemale

7. PHYLOGENY

8. Paleozoic sphenophytes grew up to thirty meters tall (nearly 100 feet). Brief History of Sphenophyta http://people.uvawise.edu/swvaflora/Sphenophyllum2072.jpg

9. Three Oders of Equisetopsid ( Accoding to fossil Record) : Pseudoborniales – which appear in the late Devonian. Sphenophyllales – which are a dominant member of the Carboniferous understory, and prospered until mid and early Permian respectively. Equisetales – existed alongside the Sphenophyllales , but diversified as that group disappeared into extinction, gradually dwilling in diversity to today’s single genus Equisetum.

10. Reproduction and Habitat T wo types of stems: The fertile (reproductive) stems appear in the early spring. The tips of fertile stems end in a yellowish to brownish spore-producing cone. Fertile stems wither and die once spores have been produced, usually by early summer Sterile (vegetative) stems emerge later than the fertile stems and are markedly different. They look like miniature pine trees with their plume-like branches

11. G enus Equisetum can grow in somewhat dry habitats, most species prefer moist soils; moisture is necessary for sperm to reach the egg cells. Equisetum may be very common, forming extensive "thickets." Because of their ability to regenerate rapidly from pieces of rhizome, Equisetum species can survive well in environments that are often disturbed, such as riverbanks, or your lawn

12. Sterile shoots of horsetail (those that look like small pine trees) appear in early May reach a maximum growth rate in July, maximum shoot height in August, and maximum shoot number in September ( Marshall, 1985). Rhizome Growth accelerates rapidly between June and July and peaks in October. Tubers appear in July and increase in weight until a killing frost occurs.

13. Illustration of vegetative growth of Equisetum arvense from (a) tuber and (b) rhizome fragment

14. Heterosporous – Microspore and Megaspore (microspore in male cone and becomes male gametophyte, megaspore in female cone and becomes female gametophyte) LIFE CYCLE OF SPHENOPHYTA

15. Sphenophyta H omosporous ,as were most of their fossil relatives; that is, they produced only one type of spore.

16. Dwarf Scouring-rush Equisetum scirpoides Field Horsetail Equisetum arvense Marsh Horsetail Equisetum palustre Woodland Horsetail Equisetum sylvaticum Variegated Horsetail Equisetum variegatum Water Horsetail Equisetum fluviatile

17. Meadow Horsetail Equisetum pratens Rough Horsetail Equisetum hyemale Smooth Scouring-rush Equisetum laevigatum

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