Seed plant

A vascular plant that reproduces through seeds rather than spores. Seed plants comprise gymnosperms and flowering plants, with seeds developing from ovules.

Seed: A plant reproductive structure containing an embryo, stored resources, and a protective covering. The seed is the defining reproductive structure of this plant group.
Pollination: The transfer of pollen to a plant's receptive reproductive structure. Pollination brings the male gametophyte to the ovule-bearing structure.
Gymnosperm: A seed plant whose ovules and seeds are not enclosed within an ovary. Gymnosperms form one of the two major living seed-plant lineages.
Devonian: A geologic period spanning about 419 to 359 million years ago, marked by major diversification of land plants. The earliest known seed plants appeared during the late Devonian.
Ovule: A plant structure containing the female gametophyte that develops into a seed after fertilization. Seed plants form seeds from ovules after fertilization.
Fertilization in plants: The fusion of plant gametes to form a diploid zygote. Fertilization creates the embryo that develops inside a seed.
Angiosperm: A flowering plant whose seeds develop enclosed within an ovary that typically becomes fruit. Angiosperms are the other major living seed-plant lineage.
Elkinsia: An extinct late Devonian seed plant known from fossils in West Virginia. Its fossils preserve some of the oldest known seed-bearing structures.
Pollen: A microscopic structure carrying the male gametophyte in seed plants. Pollen transports sperm-producing cells without requiring free-standing water for fertilization.
Seed development: The formation of a mature seed from a fertilized plant ovule. It follows fertilization and produces the embryo's protective package.

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