Question

There are 350,000 species of angiosperms, and there are less than 40,000 species of all other land plants combined. What specific evolutionary innovations related to angiosperm reproductive biology were likely involved with this explosion in biodiversity? In what way did these novel features allow angiosperms to become so diverse.

Answer 1

Angiosperm, any of about 300,000 species of flowering plants, the largest and most diverse group within the kingdom Plantae. Angiosperms represent approximately 80 percent of all the known green plants now living. The angiosperms are vascular seed plants in which the ovule (egg) is fertilized and develops into a seed in an enclosed hollow ovary. The ovary itself is usually enclosed in a flower, that part of the angiospermous plant that contains the male or female reproductive organs or both. Fruits are derived from the maturing floral organs of the angiospermous plant and are therefore characteristic of angiosperms. By contrast, in gymnosperms (e.g., conifers and cycads), the other large group of vascular seed plants, the seeds do not develop enclosed within an ovary but are usually borne exposed on the surfaces of reproductive structures, such as cones.

Their ability to flower sets them apart from non-flowering plants, also known as gymnosperms, allowing them a successful means of reproduction. If you look closely into the flowers, you can see the trademark characteristics of angiosperms, including stamens, carpels, and tiny pollen grains

Brodribb and Feild argue that more photosynthesis meant more carbon for growth. And that would have given the angiosperms the energy to push competitors like conifers out of the canopy around 150 million years ago, making angiosperms the most productive group of land plants in the world.