Gymnosperms And Angiosperms: General Characters of Gymnosperms: The ‘Gymno’ means naked and ‘Sperm’ means seeds. So, Gymnosperms are seed plants without flowers. These are heterosporous i.e. produce two types of spores, the microspores and megaspores. The microspores develop into male gametophyte and the megaspores develop into the female gametophyte. The main plant is a diploid sporophyte and gametophytes depend on it for their nutrition. Conifers or cone-bearing plants are the largest Gymnosperms. Example- pine, fir, spruce, cedar etc. Xylem in gymnosperms is composed only of tracheids and wood parenchyma. Wood fibres and vessels are absent. Thus the gymnosperms are softwoods … Continue reading General Characters of Gymnosperms And Angiosperms