How is Sporangia developed in Equisetum?
The mode of development of sporangium is eusporangiate, as it is not entirely formed from a single initial. Superficial cells adjacent to the original initial may also take part in the development of sporangium. Sporangia are initiated in single superficial cell around the rim of the young sporangiophore.
Do horsetails have Sporangia?
Some horsetails are dimorphic: some stems are vegetative only and others are non- green but have strobili. Other plants have strobili on green stems. Label Figure 23-5a. The sporangia are in paired umbrella-like structures called sporangiophores usually bearing six sporangia on their inner surface.
What is absent in mature Equisetum?
Answer: Strobilus is the correct answer.
What type of development of Sporangium is found in marsilea?
The sporophore is seen in the form of two masses on either side. The mucilage ring is present only on the dorsal side. Development of Sporangium: Sporangial development is of the leptosporangiate type.
Why is Equisetum called as horsetails?
The name “horsetail”, often used for the entire group, arose because the branched species somewhat resemble a horse’s tail. Similarly, the scientific name Equisetum is derived from the Latin equus (“horse”) + seta (“bristle”).
Can you eat horsetail?
Horsetail has two spring offerings: the tan-colored fertile shoots that appear early in the season are edible. Later, the green stalks of horsetail appear as a separate plant. These can be used as medicine, but are not eaten. Young fertile shoots are considered a delicacy among many Coast Salish People.
What is horsetail used for?
Horsetail is a plant. The above ground parts are used to make medicine. Horsetail is used for “fluid retention” (edema), kidney and bladder stones, urinary tract infections, the inability to control urination (incontinence), and general disturbances of the kidney and bladder.
How are the spores of an Equisetum plant produced?
Equisetum plants (horsetails) reproduce by producing tiny spherical spores that are typically 50 µm in diameter. The spores have four elaters, which are flexible ribbon-like appendages that are initially wrapped around the main spore body and that deploy upon drying or fold back in humid air.
How are the sporangiophores arranged in a horsetail plant?
Equisetum arvense (Field Horsetail) consists of strobilus, each strobilus has a thick axis, having several whorls of densely crowded peltate appendages situated on the sporangiophores. The sporangiophores are arranged in whorls. Usually, each such whorl is composed of twenty sporangiophores or so.
What kind of prothallus does an Equisetum have?
Hence, Equisetum is homosporous. On germination, each spore forms a small green prothallus which differs in form and in the position of sex organs (antheridia and archegonia) from that of a fern.
What kind of soil does Equisetum grow in?
E. debile grows in sandy soil along the banks of rivers, and E. arvense in grass lands with open porous soil. E. palustre commonly called the marsh horsetail grows in ponds or marshes. The plant body of Equisetum consists of an underground prostrate rhizome from which spring up a number of aerial shoots (Fig.100).