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droughts and harsh winters would insects visit various flowers,
kill adult plants, but a plant getting sweet nectar, or when
embryo, protected carefully in a various animals eat fruit from a
seed, can survive these conditions plant, getting nourishment, they
by remaining dormant. Being help plants reproduce. We’ll talk
dormant simply means that the more about the specifics of plant
seed does not sprout. Seeds will reproduction a little bit later on.
stay dormant until conditions are
just right, at which point they will Nonvascular Plants
sprout. Some seeds can stay
dormant for hundreds of years if There are four major plant types,
that’s how long it takes until and they are classified based on
conditions are right! the structures the plants do or do
not have. The nonvascular
plants do not have vascular tissue.
Remember that the vascular
tissues, xylem and phloem, move
water, minerals, and food to the
parts of the plants that need it.
Without these tissues, the
nonvascular plants do not have
true stems, roots, or leaves,
(although they have some
Figure 4 – Seeds will stay dormant until
conditions are right for them to sprout. structures that look like roots,
stems, and leaves. They also must
Seeds are extremely helpful in be very short, since nutrients
ensuring plant survival. Although cannot go up a stem.
not all plants have seeds, they can
be found in most of the species Mosses are one group of vascular
that have been highly successful in plants. These plants are the green
surviving and reproducing. “fuzz” you might have seen on
damp rocks and trees. A second
Flowers and Fruit group of nonvascular plants, the
hornworts, tend to grow in moist
Flowers and fruit generally have environments, and a final group,
the function of attracting animals, the liverworts, can be found along
which will assist the plant in riverbeds.
reproducing, and get something for
themselves in the process. When
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