#gnetophytes

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 62: early Modern and Much Earlier

These Questions are the result of suggestions from the previous iteration.

This category may include suggestions made too late to fall into the correct grouping.

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration.

I can't remember if we did this one. It would have been late last summer. i think we did some specific species, but i can't remember if it was done in total. I am quoting the whole suggestion here: "Carboniferous forests, before Angiosperms became dominant. I want to see the lepidodendrons and the huge equisetes and all the many Araucaria and gnetophytes and ginkgos that once thrived."

It is too late to fix the typo, but the First item should read somemething like: "People, species, and landscapes of California circa 1400.

[shieldfoss]

“artist bio” by anna daliza

[gnetophyte]

variety is the spice of life

[plant-taxonomy-showdown]

#i like the rhodophyta#but i have to vote for the phylum with welwitschia in it because that plant is just So Weird#certain aspects of it might be indicators of how flowers evolved#its leaves never shed they just keep growing and growing and growing from the base (no other plant does this)#it is so odd#its lifespan is potentially infinite also - it doesn't die after a season like many plants or a few years like many others#it just. keeps. growing.#until something kills it

@a-commas-a-pause

Gnetophyte propaganda!

Phylum Round 1

The Other Kind of Gymnosperm vs Red Algae

Gnetophyta: I don't really know what's going on with these plants. They're gymnosperms (like pine trees -- seeds yes, flowers no) but there's only 70 species in three genera, and all three genera look pretty different from each other. And I'm not the only one scratching my head here, according to Wikipedia, "Unlike most biological groupings, it is difficult to find many common characteristics between all of the members of the gnetophytes." The phylum includes vines, shrubs, and less commonly trees. Welwitschia mirabilis (shown above) lives in the Namib desert in Africa and can grow up to 4 meters or 13 feet in diameter.

Rhodophyta: Arguably not a plant, sometimes a seaweed (the seaweed used in sushi is a red alga.) Over 7,000 known species. Most live in the ocean. No chloroplasts, but they can be green anyways, or pink or brown or purple or almost black, or of course red. Most red algae are multicellular and can be seen without a microscope, and they mostly reproduce sexually. As with many plants they often have alternation of generations, but may have three stages rather than two. A distinguished member of the phylum is corraline algae, which is essential in forming coral reefs.

[radio-charlie]

Sorry. i know i’ve said a lot of fucked up shit about gay guys on this blog. and then promised to stop doing that then did it again. even though some of you are annoying and also losers, you don’t deserve to have that put down to the fact that u are gay. even if u were straight u would probably still be annoying. anyway i wish u all the best and will try to stop saying that one slur all the time

[botanyshitposts]

Hi, I need to write a seminar for my Applied Botany class and have no inspiration. What's the weirdest plant you can think of off the top of your head (which is hopefully an Angiosperm)? Sources welcome if you have the time but I can hunt them down on my own.

ok i was gonna instinctively say a gnetophyte but instead i'll go the closest i can get to a gnetophyte without leaving the angiosperms: Amborella trichopoda. but if you want to do an all time classic friend of this blog you could do Symplocarpus foetidus, the eastern skunk cabbage, which might be easier to research tbh and has tons of charisma, OR you could do one that's really cool in theory but recently has been more up in the air, Boquila trifoliolata, the plant that allegedly can see-- the truth is that we know for sure it mimics the leaves of plants around it, but we don't know for sure how yet, and there's been some controversy about the last big paper published about it in 2021, which claimed it had proved definitively that the plants did mimicry through 'sight'. still very cool though, and the extra attention clearly doesn't hurt in terms of figuring out how it actually works.

[mineralsrocksandfossiltalks]

Fossil Friday: Argentinosaurus

Argentinosaurus is a titanosaur from late Cretaceous Argentina. The animal is very fragmentary with only 14 known elements of which only two are complete.

So, how do we know it's the heaviest land animal to ever walk the earth? Well, we don't actually. We need more pieces of the puzzle before we can accurately answer that question. We can, at the very least, put in a clade though.

In a paper describing the holotype of Argentinosaurus, we can see the characters it possesses that place it within titanosauria:

"Argentinosaurus huinculensis is identified basically with Titanosauria, by the presence of diverse characters whose association is characteristic of this clade, and that have in part been already been pointed out and illustrated by Powell (1986): a) opisthocoelous dorsal vertebrae with relatively small, elliptic pleurocoels, located in the middle and anterior sector of the vertebral body, in a wide pleurocoelic depression of 8 oval form, more wide in the anterior sector than in the posterior; b) presence of very clear, angular fossae, in the lateral face of the neural arch of the dorsal vertebrae; c) neural spines of the anterior dorsals rather flat, wide transversely, and without vestiges of bifurcation; d) presence of large bony cells in the entirety of the spongy tissue of the dorsal and sacral vertebrae." (https://www.naturalhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/media/translated_publications/Bonaparte%26amp%3BCoria_93.pdf)

Argentinosaurus was found in the Huincul Formation composed of green and yellow sandstones up to 820ft (250m) thick. It is thought to represent a drainage system of a braided river.

Plants known from this formation include hornworts, liverworts,

ferns, clubmosses,

gymnosperms (including gnetophytes like ephedra and conifers)

and angiosperms.

Animals found in this formation include lungfish, gar,

turtles, squamates,

sphenodonts, crocodiles,

and many dinosaurs including titanosaur Choconsaurus, rebbachisaurids Cathartesaurus and Limaysaurus, carcharodontosaurid Mapusaurus, abelisaurids Skorpiovenator, Ilokelsia, and Tralkasaurus, noasaurid Huinculsaurus and paravian Overoraptor.

Tune in on Monday to learn all about diplodocids in more detail. Fossilize you later!

[cctinsleybaxter]

Tagged by @theygotlost to spell my username with song titles

Common People- Pulp

Change in the Weather- The Beths

Thankyou (For Loving Me At My Worst)- The Whitlams

INTELLIGENT DESIGN- Kilo Kish ft. Jesse Boykins III

Never’s Altar- Bryan Scary

Sherlock Holmes- Sparks

Lago en el Cielo- Gustavo Cerati

Elevator Love Letter- Stars

You Could Be- Anz ft. George Riley

Bad Moon Rising- CCR

Asheghune- Radio Tehran

eX- Lush

There Are Listed Buildings- Los Campesinos!

Erase- They Might Be Giants

Real Bad News- Aimee Mann

Tagging @doryprevins @gnetophyte @penworthy @truckpussy @queensboro whoever else (lie and say I tagged you it’s okay)

[blogdebianca]

Gymnosperms are the woody plants we see that reproduce by exposed seeds and are not enclosed in fruits or flowers. Their seeds do well in more stable land, unlike bryophytes which thrive in disturbed land and will grow basically anywhere. Gymnosperms and other vascular plants have seeds that grow into gametophytes, male or female, whereas nonvascular plants like bryophyte reproduce with spores that grow into sporophyte.

There are 4 types of gymnosperms: conifers, cycads, Ginkgo, and gnetophytes.

Conifers have simple leaves, their male and female gametophytes grow together. There are huge forests filled with conifers which prove shelter to many animals even during the harsh winters because these trees have evergreen leaves which do not shed off completely. Photo taken by me in Estes, Colorado November 2024.

Cycads have slow growing trunks, fleshy cones, and are often pollinated by beetles.

Ginkgo trees are a sacred tree to the Chinese and its native in China. There are many health benefits of ingesting ginkgo extract as they are rich in antioxidants which positively affects heart health, brain health, and stroke prevention as stated in the article by acupuncturist Dr. Kerry Boyle. Image from this website

Gnetophyes have simple leaves arranged in opposite pattern. The gnetophyte species called Welwitschia mirabilis is considered to be the weirdest of all the gymnosperms due to its strange growth tendencies. To learn more please visit this website!

[bewareofdragon]

If you haven't already, look up Gnetophytes.

really wild how animal diversity seems pretty well distributed across clades, meanwhile there are like 50 times in plants where it's like "behold, the fucked up guy. The fucked up guy forms a sister group to these 80,000 species"

[craigzlist]

was literally going to send you an ask earlier today but i don't remember what it was supposed to say

dont bother me anymore >:(

[threesideddream]

gnetophyte replied to your post: I listened to Ante Up and now I got too much fight...

junglepussy too

GOD YES SHE DESERVES IT!!!!!

[indefenseofplants]

Gymnosperms and Fleshy "Fruits"

Many of us were taught in school that one of the key distinguishing features between gymnosperms and angiosperms is the production of fruit. Fruit, by definition, is a structure formed from the ovary of a flowering plant. Gymnosperms, on the other hand, do not enclose their ovules in ovaries. Instead, their unfertilized ovules are exposed (to one degree or another) to the environment. The word “gymnosperm” reflects this as it is Greek for “naked seed.” However, as is the case with all things biological, there are exceptions to nearly every rule. There are gymnosperms on this planet that produce structures that function quite similar to fruits.

The key to understanding this evolutionary convergence lies in understanding the benefits of fruits in the first place. Fruits are all about packing seeds into structures that appeal to the palates of various types of animals who then eat said fruits. Once consumed, the animals digest the fruity bits and will often deposit the seeds elsewhere in their feces. Propagule dispersal is key to the success of plants as it allows them to not only to complete their reproductive cycle but also conquer new territory in the process. With a basic introduction out of the way, let’s get back to gymnosperms.

There are 4 major gymnosperm lineages on this planet - the Ginkgo, cycads, gnetophytes, and conifers. Each one of these groups contains members that produce fleshy structures around their seeds. However, their “fruits” do not all develop in the same way. The most remarkable thing to me is that, from a developmental standpoint, each lineage has evolved its own pathway for “fruit” production.

For instance, consider ginkgos and cycads. Both of these groups can trace their evolutionary history back to the early Permian, some 270 - 280 million years ago, long before flowering plants came onto the scene. Both surround their developing seed with a layer of protective tissue called the integument. As the seed develops, the integument swells and becomes quite fleshy. In the case of Ginkgo, the integument is rich in a compound called butyric acid, which give them their characteristic rotten butter smell. No one can say for sure who this nasty odor originally evolved to attract but it likely has something to do with seed dispersal. Modern day carnivores seem to be especially fond of Ginkgo “fruits,” which would suggest that some bygone carnivore may have been the main seed disperser for these trees.

The Gnetophytes are represented by three extant lineages (Gnetaceae, Welwitschiaceae, and Ephedraceae), but only two of them - Gnetaceae and Ephedraceae - produce fruit-like structures. As if the overall appearance of the various Gnetum species didn’t make you question your assumptions of what a gymnosperm should look like, its seeds certainly will. They are downright berry-like!

The formation of the fruit-like structure surrounding each seed can be traced back to tiny bracts at the base of the ovule. After fertilization, these bracts grow up and around the seed and swell to become red and fleshy. As you can imagine, Gnetum “fruits” are a real hit with animals. In the case of some Ephedra, the “fruit” is also derived from much larger bracts that surround the ovule. These bracts are more leaf-like at the start than those of their Gnetum cousins but their development and function is much the same.

Whereas we usually think of woody cones when we think of conifers, there are many species within this lineage that also have converged on fleshy structures surrounding their seeds. Probably the most famous and widely recognized example of this can be seen in the yews (Taxus spp.). Ovules are presented singly and each is subtended by a small stalk called a peduncle. Once fertilized, a group of cells on the peduncle begin to grow and differentiate. They gradually swell and engulf the seed, forming a bright red, fleshy structure called an “aril.” Arils are magnificent seed dispersal devices as birds absolutely relish them. The seed within is quite toxic so it usually escapes the process unharmed and with any luck is deposited far away from the parent plant.

Another great example of fleshy conifer “fruits” can be seen in the junipers (Juniperus spp.). Unlike the other gymnosperms mentioned here, the junipers do produce cones. However, unlike pine cones, the scales of juniper cones do not open to release the seeds inside. Instead, they swell shut and each scale becomes quite fleshy. Juniper cones aren’t red like we have seen in other lineages but they certainly garnish the attention of many a small animal looking for food.

I have only begun to scratch the surface of the fruit-like structures in gymnosperms. There is plenty of literary fodder out there for those of you who love to read about developmental biology and evolution. It is a fascinating world to uncover. More importantly, I think the fleshy “fruits” of the various gymnosperm lineages stand as a testament to the power of natural selection as a driving force for evolution on our planet. It is amazing that such distantly related plants have converged on similar seed dispersal mechanisms by so many different means.

Photo Credits: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Further Reading: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

[gnetophyte]

movies i watched lately and enjoyed

- cache (2005)

- decision to leave (2022)

- please baby please (2022)

movies i watched lately and felt largely indifferent about

- tar (2022)

- drop dead gorgeous (1999)

- beyond the black rainbow (2010)

this had been… an update from gnetophyte

[plant-taxonomy-showdown]

Phylum Round 1

Pine Trees vs A Different Type of Green Algae!

Pinophyta or Coniferophyta (conifers): pines, firs, spruces, sequoias, cedars, junipers, larches, cypresses, kauri, yews — if it has cones and needles rather than leaves and fruit, it’s probably a conifer! (Other gymnosperms — plants that bear seeds but not fruit — are the cycads, the ginkgo-like plants, and the gnetophytes.) Most are trees, but some are shrubs; conifers are especially prominent in boreal forests near the Arctic Circle, which store 1/3 of Earth's terrestrial carbon.

Chlorophyta (big category of green algae less closely related to land plants): I wasn't sure I was going to have anything interesting to say about these guys, but I was so wrong! With over 4,000 known species, chlorophytes are extremely diverse. Most live in fresh water, but some live in the ocean or on land. Some live in extreme environments, like deep sea hydrothermal vents, hypersaline lakes, deserts, and the arctic. Some have mutualistic relationships with animals like mollusks or sponges or cnidarians, and others have mutualistic relationships with fungi, forming lichen. While plants are known for being autotrophs (creating their own food), some chlorophytes are heterotrophs -- they get their nutrition from other organisms, either as parasites or otherwise. Some are pathogens.

[radio-charlie]

“The climate apocalypse isn’t real” “vaccine and mask mandates are fascism” “anti vaxxers are right” “trump is so camp btw if u find smth i said fucked up that was also camp u just don’t get it” “leftists are wilfully counterproductive and coddle pedos” “leftists and academics can’t be trusted” “satanism is so corny actually” do u guys know how much of this rot in the disaffected global north queer/girlblogger tumblr realm can be traced to like one still active blog here. this is not being said w contempt towards u. i’m just v impressed by how easily all that reactionary shit got fed in there and made fascist tumblrs sexy to so many of these idiots lol