Ginkgoales &

Cycadales
 Ginkgoales
• This order is today represented by only one
living member, i.e. Ginkgo biloba.
• They were, however, very abundantly
represented in the world by several species of
about 16 genera during the Triassic period of
Mesozoic age.
• Today, all the genera, except Ginkgo biloba,
are extinct.
 Distribution of Ginkgo:

• Ginkgo biloba is a tall slender and beautiful tree.

• It is commonly called Maiden-hair Tree because
its new leaves resemble very much like those of
Adiantum (called maiden hair fern) both in form
and venation.
• It is the oldest living seed plant. It is cultivated for
its edible seeds in some parts of China and Japan.
 Conti…
• Ginkgo still exists in the wild state in South-
eastern China, along “the north western
border.
• In China and Japan it is grown as a sacred tree
in temple gardens.
• It is cultivated in the United States as a shade
tree.
• It is also successfully cultivated in some
gardens of Europe, America and India.
 Ginkgo: A Living Fossil
• Ginkgo is known to have occurred in rocks as
old as Triassic or even much earlier. Fossils of
its leaves have been identified in the Permian
and also in the Carboniferous.
• G. biloba occurs even today. It is, therefore,
referred as living fossil by the botanists. Or, it
may also be referred as the oldest living seed
plant.
Morphological Features of Ginkgo
• The trees attained a height up to 30 meters.
• The branches are dimorphic i.e.
i. Long shoots which are of unlimited growth
with scattered leaves. Long shoots elongate
rapidly, sometimes as much as 50 cm in a
year.
 Conti…
ii. Dwarf shoots which are short branches of
limited growth.
• Dwarf shoots grow rather slowly. A dwarf
shoot of 2-3 cm length may be several years
old.
Conti…
Growth pattern of long and dwarf shoots

• The foliage leaves, present on the long shoots,

are deeply lobed while those on the dwarf
shoots are not so deeply lobed and sometimes
more or less entire (Smooth margins).
• Bierhorst (1971) said that differences in the
growth pattern of long and dwarf shoots may
be due to the quantities of auxin produced in
the apical meristems.
Ginkgo Leaves
 Tap root system
• Ginkgo biloba possesses a long tap root system. The
roots are extensively branched and penetrate deep
into the soil.
• Leaves
• The foliage leaves are simple, large, petiolate and
fan-shaped with expanded apex and narrow base.
• In general, the leaves are bilobed, and hence the
name ‘biloba’ was suggested to the species by
Linnaeus (1771).
 Stomata
• The leaves are hypostomatic (i.e. bear stomata
only on the lower surface of the leaf).
• Kanis and Karstens (1963), however, observed
a few stomata on the upper surface of the
leaves on long shoot, thus making them
amphistomatic.
• Stomata remain surrounded by 4-6 subsidiary
cells and guard cells.
 Anatomy of Ginkgo:
Root:
• Mature roots are surrounded by phellogen or
suberized cells of cortex.
• A large portion of the young root is occupied
by multilayered, thin-walled cortex which
contains several tannin- filled cells and calcium
oxalate crystals.
• Mucilage canals are also present.
 Conti…
• In young roots, a layer of endodermis and uni-
layered pericycle are clear. Mature roots,
however, lack such a distinction.
• Xylem is exarch. It remains separated by the
phloem strands.
Anatomy of Roots
 (ii) Stem
• The young stem (long shoot) is surrounded by a single-
layered, thick epidermis.
• Epidermis is replaced by periderm in the older stems.
• Inner to the epidermal layer is present a well-marked
region of parenchymatous cortex.
• It contains mucilaginous canals and many tannin-filled
cells. Cortex is comparatively less wide in long shoots
than dwarf shoots.
• Endodermis and pericycle are not well-marked in long
shoot.
 (iii) Leaf:
• A layer of epidermis is present on upper as well as
lower sides of leaf.
• Mesophyll is present. It is not well-differentiated into
palisade and spongy parenchyma.
• The leaves of long shoot, however, show a distinct
palisade region.
• Many mucilage canals or secretory canals and a few
tannin-filled cells are also present in the mesophyll
region.
Anatomy of Leaf
 Seeds and Seedlings:
• Seeds consist of a woody inner "nut", surrounded by
a fleshy, yellow coat; the seeds resemble yellow
cherries
• They fall off of the parent tree in the fall just before
the leaves
• The seeds are relatively large in comparison to the
seeds of most other trees (especially conifers)
Short shoots to trees
 Reproduction

• Trees produce ovulate, pollen-bearing

structures. These structures are dioecious, in
that male and female structures come from
different plants.
• Pollen is contained in sacs at the tips of
sporophylls on the strobiloid.
• Ovules of trees come from stalks from leaf axils
on the short shoots.
 Cycas
• Cycas (Gr. kykos a palm) is commonly found in
tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world.
• Cycas revoluta(sago palm) is most common and
widely studied species in the sub-continent.
• It is cultivated for yield of starch-rich sago used
as food.
• Cycas circinalis is cultivated as ornamental for
its large attractive palm-like leaves.
 Plant body
• The cycas exhibit the following charactristics

1. Cycas is a heterosporous sporophyte.

2. The plant body consists of a short, tuberous, unbranched stem
which bears a crown of large fern-like leaves.
3. The stem is covered with tough leaf bases.
4. In some species large adventitious buds called bulbils develop
on the basal part of the stem. They contain reserve food and
serve the purpose of vegetative reproduction.
• 5. The leaves are pinnately compound and
exhibit circinate vernation.
• 6. The root is primary which give rise to short
lateral branches. Some of these branch roots
are infected with blue-green alga Anabaena.
These branches grow horizontally on and
above the surface of the ground.
• 7. They branch dichotomously and form a
coral-like mass, therefor called coralloid roots.
 Stem
• The stem appears irregular in outline in a transverse section due to presence of
persistent leaf bases
Epidermis
• The outermost protective layer is epidermis. It is single layered and discontinuous
due to interruption at places by the persistent leaf bases
Cortex
• Beneath the epidermis a broad cortex is present. It comprises of thin-walled
parenchyma cells which are filled with starch in old stems. Mucilage canals are
found in the cortex.
Stele
• The endodermis and pericycle are not distinct. Many vascular bundles arranged in
ring are present in the stem. These are conjoint, open, collateral and endarch.
Xylem & Phloem
• The xylem consists of tracheids and xylem parenchyma and the phloem is
composed of sieve tubes and phloem parenchyma cells. The vessels and
companion cells are absent.
 Roots
• Root: The anatomy of primary root is similar to that
of a dicot root.
• Epiblema:The outermost layer is root is epiblema. It
is single layered and rounds the cortex.
• The cortex is composed of parenchyma cells.
• The stele is diarch in young roots and tetrarch in
older parts.
• Pericycle
• The boundary of the stele is occupied by a single layered
pericycle composed of parenchyma cells.
• Xylem& Phloem
• The xylem bundles are exarch with protoxylem towards the
outside and nataxylem towards the center.
• Pith is present in the young roots but it disappears later on. The
root tip is protected by root cap.
• Secondary growth takes place in older regions of the primary
root. The secondary vascular bundles are arranged in
concentric rings. The periderm replaces the Epiblema and cork
develops on the outer side of the root.
• Coralloid Root
• The internal structure of the coralloid roots is
similar to that of primary root and only
difference is that a conspicuous broad algal
zone is present in the middle of the cortex
Thus, the cortex can be differentiated into
three regions, the outer cortex, middle cortex
infected with a blue-green alga Anabaena, and
inner cortex.
The reproduction in Cycas is vegetative and
sexual
• Vegetative Reproduction
• Cycas reproduces vegetatively by formation of
adventitious buds containing eeve food, the
bulbils These develop on the basal part of the
stem in the axils of Each bulbil consists of a
few scales and foliage leaves. It develops into
new plant on detachment.
 Sexual:
• Male Cone
• The male cones of Cycas are largest among the male cones
in gymnosperms Usually a single, woody, spindle-shaped
male cone about 50 cm in length develops at the apex of
the stem.
• Female Cone
• In Cycas, the megasporophylls are not organized into a
cone. Therefore the female cone consists of loosely
arranged megasporophylls which surround the shoot apex
like the foliage leaves.
• The ovules are hairy, red in colour and may reach 6 cm
length.
 Sexual Reproduction
• Cycas is dioecious ie, male and female plants are separate.
• However, the male pants are very rare.
• The plant is heterosporous and produces two kinds of
spores, the oospores which develop into male
gametophytes and megaspores that develop into female
gametophytes.
• The spores are produced in separate sporangia that
develop on scale-like structures, the sporophylls.
• The sporophylls aggregate to form strobili or cones.
• The male and female cones are produced on separate
plants
 Pollination & Fertilization
• The transfer of pollen grains from microsporangia to the
micropyle of the ovule called pollination.
• The pollen grains are carried by wind (Anemophily) and
caught by pollination drop secreted by ovule. Pollination is
direct.
• The pollination drop is dehydrated and the pollen grains are
sucked into the pollen chamber.
• Pollen grains take rest for some time in the pollen chamber.
Seed Formation and Germination of Seed:

• As the embryo is developing, the ovule

increases in size and changes take place in the
integument.
• The outermost layer develops red colour and
becomes fleshy, the middle layer becomes
stony and hard; and the inner layer remains
soft.
• These layers constitute seed coat are the
embryo to form seed.