What Is The Function Of The Strobilus Of The Horsetail?

the strobilus is borne on a vegetative stem (meaning that there is no specialized brach for reproduction). This is the strobilus of Equisetum telmatiea. Early in reproductive stems can be seen along ditches. The function of these stems is to produce spores.

What are strobili in horsetails?

Strobili form at the uppermost portion of fertile branches and are composed of sporophylls bearing a single sporangium. Dispersed by wind, the small spores germinate into small, free-living disc-shaped gametophytes that produce either archegonia (female reproductive organs) or sperm-producing antheridia.

Does horsetail have strobilus?

Horsetail plants have a very ancient lineage that extends back some 200 million years. Similar to other primitive vascular plants, they exhibit an asexual reproductive structure, the sphenophyte strobilus, more commonly known as a cone.

What is strobilus in Equisetum?

Members of the genus Equisetum, horsetails are a type of hollow-stemmed plant that exhibits an extensive creeping root system. Sometimes alternatively known as horse pipes, mare’s tail, or snake grass, horsetails thrive best in damp environments, such as swamps, bogs, and stream banks.

What structure of a horsetail contains sporangia strobilus?

Reproductive Shoots
Sporangia are produced in a terminal strobilus on the reproductive shoot. In some species, this reproductive shoot lacks chlorophyll and is instead fed through the rhizome of connected vegetative shoots. Spores are photosynthetic and have four hygroscopic arms called elaters.

What is the structure and function of a strobilus?

Strobilus is an aggregation of sporangia bearing leaves into a cone-like structure. It has a central axis surrounded by spirally arranged leaves called sporophylls. Strobilus is present in many non-flowering, land plants. It is a non-woody structure but the cones are mostly woodily found in conifers.

What do strobili produce?

Accordingly, strobili bear megasporophylls that contain megasporangia, which will produce megaspores, and microsporophylls that contain microsporangia, which will yield microspores.

What does the strobilus contain?

cone, also called strobilus, in botany, mass of scales or bracts, usually ovate in shape, containing the reproductive organs of certain nonflowering plants. The cone, a distinguishing feature of pines and other conifers, is also found on all gymnosperms, on some club mosses, and on horsetails.

What is unique about horsetail?

Horsetail has several distinguishing characteristics. One such characteristic is horsetail’s hollow stems (Figures 1 and 3). Its stems also are jointed, can easily be separated into sections, and have siliceous ridges that make it rough to the touch.

What does male strobilus produce?

The pollen cone or male strobilus is basically a branch that has been modified. Microsporophylls are the leaves. These modified leaves contain microsporangia, which produce pollen grains.

What is an example of strobilus?

A “cone” (such as the ones of pine trees).

How are strobili formed?

Strobili arise and begin to develop in the apical meristems of the main axis and lateral branches, with no significant differences in the ontogeny of strobili of one or other axis. Successive processes of cell division and differentiation lead to the growth of the strobilus and the formation of sporangiophores.

Does Equisetum have strobili or cones?

Non-flowering plants have strobili, or cones as dense and compact structures. They shield spores from wild animals and harsh climatic conditions by containing sporangia. Equisetum strobili can be found at the end of the stem.

Do strobilus contain spores?

…the strobilus are often called sporangiophores and have been considered to be both stem branches and of leafy origin; in the latter case they are called sporophylls. Each sporangiophore bears a number of fingerlike sporangia, which produce large numbers of thin-walled green spores.

Is strobilus a sporophyte?

Sporophyll a spore-bearing leaf (microphyll, not a “true” leaf); a modified leaf bearing sporangia. In some lycophytes, the megaspore (and so the developing megagametophyte) stay with the sporophyte and its sporophylls (i.e., the strobilus).

What part of horsetail is used?

Typically the green fern-like part of the plant (i.e., the aboveground part) is used for medicinal purposes. People have been using horsetail since ancient Greek and Roman times. 2 The plant has been used as a medicinal herb to treat weak and brittle bones (osteoporosis), tuberculosis, and kidney problems.

Is a flower a strobilus?

Although interpretations vary, the flower is widely regarded as a simple (uniaxial) strobilus typically bearing both megasporophylls (carpels) and microsporophylls (stamens) (table 1).

Are strobili flowers?

Flowers of the conifers (pine, spruce, fir, and other cone-bearing woody plants) are called strobili, which means small cones. They do not have a calyx, corolla, stamens, or pistils as many flowers do. The strobili consist of a central axis with distinctively shaped scales and bracts.

Which of the following plants produces cones or strobili?

Gymnosperms share few features with angiosperms such as being heterosporous (producing both megaspores and microspores), having a predominant sporophytic phase. Cones or strobili are formed when the seeds of the plant are exposed on the sporophylls.

Who was strobilus?

Strobilus. A slave of Lyconides, Strobilus facilitates the theft of Euclio’s pot of gold, outwitting the paranoid old man and stealing his treasure from its hiding spot in the Grove of Silvanus. Strobilus acts the part of the “cunning slave,” a recurring character trope in Roman playwriting.

What type of leaves composed the strobilus structure?

To sexually reproduce, these plants produce cone-like structures at the end of their branches, called strobili. A strobilus is composed of leaves called sporophylls that bear sporangia (Figure 6.3.