Tracheophytes Lab

What might you think a forest would have looked like millions of years ago? Or tens of millions of years ago? Or hundreds of millions of years ago? Probably very different than today. In this lesson the focus will be on the very first and most ancient plants: the non-vascular seedless plants and the vascular seedless plants. These plants have had a great impact on all our lives. Over 300 million years ago, during the Carboniferous period, forests looked very different than they do today. Seedless plants grew as tall as today’s trees in vast swampy forests. The remains of these forests formed the fossil fuel coal that we depend on today. Although most of these giant seedless plants are now extinct, smaller relatives still remain.

IIn this lab, our investigation into the first land plants takes us to the comparative anatomy and lifecycles of Mosses and Ferns. Alternation of Generation figures prominently.