Seed plant
The extant spermatophytes form five divisions, the first four of which are classified as gymnosperms, plants that have unenclosed, "naked seeds":[1]: 172 The fifth extant division is the flowering plants, also known as angiosperms or magnoliophytes, the largest and most diverse group of spermatophytes: In addition to the five living taxa listed above, the fossil record contains evidence of many extinct taxa of seed plants, among those: By the Triassic period, seed ferns had declined in ecological importance, and representatives of modern gymnosperm groups were abundant and dominant through the end of the Cretaceous, when the angiosperms radiated.A series of evolutionary changes began with a whole genome duplication event in the ancestor of seed plants occurred about 319 million years ago.[5] The spermatophytes were traditionally divided into angiosperms, or flowering plants, and gymnosperms, which includes the gnetophytes, cycads,[5] ginkgo, and conifers.Older morphological studies believed in a close relationship between the gnetophytes and the angiosperms,[6] in particular based on vessel elements.However, molecular studies (and some more recent morphological[7][8] and fossil[9] papers) have generally shown a clade of gymnosperms, with the gnetophytes in or near the conifers.
PreꞒPinus sylvestrisPinophytaAcer pseudoplatanusEudicotsScientific classificationPlantaeTracheophytesGymnospermaeCycadophytaGinkgophytaGnetophytaAngiospermaeSynonymsAncient Greekembryophyteflowering plantsgymnospermsmossescryptogamaeGinkgocone-bearingEphedraGnetumWelwitschiaAngiospermsextinctPteridospermaePaleozoicGlossopterisGondwanaPermianTriassicCretaceousRuncariaDevonianprecursorBelgiummegasporangiumintegumentpollinationseed coatFamennianLyginopteridalesvascular plantsvessel elementsCycadsPinaceaeGnetophytesdivisionclassesCycadopsidaGinkgoopsidaPinopsidaGnetopsidaMagnoliopsidaMagnoliophytaPteridospermatophytaCordaitalesCalamopityalesCallistophytalesCaytonialesGigantopteridalesGlossopteridalesMedullosalesPeltaspermalesUmkomasialesCzekanowskialesBennettitalesErdtmanithecalesPentoxylalesJudd, Walter S.Palmer, Jeffrey D.Chase, Mark W.BibcodeProceedings of the National Academy of SciencesAmerican Journal of BotanyArchaeplastidaPlantae s.l.DomainDiaphoretickesAmorpheaPicozoaPicomonasRhodelphidiaRhodelphisRhodophytaCyanidiophyceaeProteorhodophytinaPorphyridiophyceaeStylonematophyceaeCompsopogonophyceaeRhodellophyceaeEurhodophytinaBangiophyceaeFlorideophyceaeGlaucophytaGlaucocystophyceaeAlgospongiaViridiplantaePlantae s.s.green algaePrasinodermophytaPrasinodermophyceaePalmophyllophyceaeChlorophytaMamiellophyceaePyramimonadophyceaeNephroselmidophyceaePicocystophyceaeChloropicophyceaePedinophyceaeChlorodendrophyceaeUTC cladeUlvophyceaeTrebouxiophyceaeChlorophyceaeStreptophytaMesostigmatophyceaeChlorokybophyceaeSpirotaeniaKlebsormidiophyceaePhragmoplastophytaCharophyceaeColeochaetophyceaeZygnematophyceae