Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Dentophyta

Dentophyta

The dentophytes are green terrestrial plants with a rush-like appearance. They range in height from 0.2-10 m tall. The stems are green and photosynthetic. They are hollow, jointed, ridged, and coated with an abrasive silica that lends them their name, with microphylls leaves attatched in whorls of small, segments fused into nodal sheaths. The spores are borne under in cone-like sporangiophores at the tips of some of the stems. They are mostly homosporous, with the spores having six elaters that act as moisture-sensitive springs, assisting spore dispersal after the sporangia have split open longitudinally.