Horbace plants with modern science belong to the department of fernlike spore plants. They were one of the first living organisms that appeared on our planet.
Earlier, representatives of this department played a significant role in the plant cover of the planet, back in the coal period.
Today, only small herbaceous plants have been preserved, which in the total number have about 20 species, and which include field, meadow, marsh horsetails and many others.
The structure of horsetails
In the scientific environment, the name of this department is translated from Latin as a “horse mane”, and these plants really resemble part of this animal, or rather, its tail, which was displayed in the Russian version of the name.
The structure of horsetails
The horded are the highest herbaceous plants of spores, and they, like all plants, have several components:
In the life cycle of this plant, the leading value is precisely the asexual generation (sporophyte), which is carried out using a dispute or parts of the plant, and sexual reproduction (embryo) is organized using gametes, is mandatory accompanied by the presence of a liquid environment. These two types of reproduction in plants are dressed in alternate.
Modern types of horsetails belong to many years of herbaceous forms, and, as a rule, a strict separation of the shoot and the formation of nodes from which dentist leaves grow by their main characteristic sign is considered to be their main characteristic sign. At the base of the node, these leaves grow together and form a peculiar vagina: in such nodes, cells of educational tissue can be found and they are an active part in the process of insertion growth of the plant. The ribbed stem of the plant ensures the performance of the function of photosynthesis: in its middle there are a significant number of cavities in which water and oxygen are located.
Horsetail plants are equipped with an underground root system. Their rhizome in the same way as the stem is divided into internodes.
The sporophyte of horsetail plants is usually green shoots, which outwardly very reminiscent of a young shoot of pine. But the shape of the gametophyte in horsetails exists separately and resembles a green plate.
The body of a horsetail consists of a stem, which has a pronounced separation with strict alternation of nodes and internodes, and from the axial organ of which are formed (directly in the nodes) scaly leaves.
Thanks to a very developed root system, equipped with tubers or subordinate roots, Horsetail has earned a weed reputation, since it greatly complicates the organization of the fight against this type of plant. But it is she who helps him very steadfastly to endure various kinds of fires.
Leaves of horsetail plants
The vast majority of all representatives of the flora of our planet have green leaves. And horsetail plants are no exception, but for modern horsetails are a characteristic feature: peculiar leaf plates are largely reduced to dark, sometimes green or even colorless, teeth, and a bright and pronounced vagina is a single, grownup device.
In general, horsetails are characterized by green, long and narrow shapes of fans located with mutov, and these are not leaves, but only side shoots: fluffy, resembling young Christmas trees that can be found both on the fields and on the roads.
It must be understood that for the reproductive system of such plants, the presence of specific reproduction organs can be considered a characteristic feature strobil in the form of spikelets, and sporebearing zones are formed only in certain types.
Modern species of horsetails are distinguished by sporagiophores of the shield form, but their ancient species were distinguished by a significant variety of forms (with the exception of the usual leafshaped).
The same familiar and common type of horsetail plants, horsetail, is distinguished by the presence of two forms of shoots: the first, called spring, are not able to organize photosynthesis and is a carrier for sporebearing spikes; But the summer is just a vegetative.
Therefore, the shoots of horsetail as a representative of this department can be divided into two types:
Such shoots are stems of nodes and internodes, decorated on the top formed by spikelets with scaly leaves, whose teeth are located directly at the base of the nodes, and the nodes are hidden under the combined vagina.
Such shoots are high green stalks with small narrow mutts of lateral stems necessary for photosynthesis. The foliage on such shoots is distinguished by a scaly shape and is fused, only cloves and plates of a green shade are noticeable outside.
The stem of horsetail plants
Horsetails cannot be confused with other species. This is due to the fact that their stem is always formed in an articulate form, and consists of nodes and internodes, replacing among themselves. And just in such nodes you can find reduced brown leaves in the form of teeth. And there are also lateral twigs, as well as forming mutations.
The stem of horsetail
The stem itself and its internodes are not equipped with either leaves or other forms, and due to the lack of foliage, the process of photosynthesis takes place due to the main stem and lateral branches, so they are intensively painted in a green tint.
Inside the stem of the horsetail is horsetail and is distinguished by a ribbed surface, since a sufficient amount of silica crystals can be detected in its bark.
Hattleshaped plants are perennial, and ground shoots are able to die annually (regarding some species) and winter in a green state. In any case, a constantly living form is able to support only a developed rhizome underground and its kidneys become a start for new aboveground formations of the plant. And since the skin of the walls of the stem is filled with silica, its ribbiness and rigidity are increased, and the process of photosynthesis, which transforms the energy of light into the connection of all substances in the stems and branches, provides the horsetail of an even more significant density.
Tissues of horsetail plants
Horbace plants belong to the department of the highest perennial grassy plants of spore form. Their shoots, consisting of pronounced segments and nodes with a mutated-formed leaves, are provided with well-formed fabric of the conductive type:
Frowning in the soil of these X plants occurs due to long and powerful rhizomes, reinforced by the subordinate clams.
The entire surface area of the aboveground stem of horsetail plants is covered with longitudinal ridges and furrows that are intended to hide the massive accumulation of mouths that provide the plant with gas exchange.
The epidermis of the horsetail is usually covered with a wax cuticle, under which the silica layer is located, and it is the silica that the walls of plant cells are saturated through; A similar structure of tissues allows the horsetail to enhance the strength of the shoots, as well as change the amount of fluid losses.
Regarding the tissue structure of the horded … Some of them have special systems, or sporageophores that carry sporangia. It is their mutations that form sporebearing zones in the stem, such zones alternate with vegetative leaves.
Signs and characteristics of horsetail
Along with tree fern, it was the horsetail species of plants that took an active part in the formation of coal forests.
Moreover, both from modern and already disappeared plants, the horsetails are very distinguished by the presence of shoots from individual segments and nodes. It is this specificity of the structure of the shoots of plants of this department that gave them the name “arthropuses”, it is precisely such internodes that is easily laid out into the components. Similar articulation is formed due to mutated leaf arrangement, supplemented by the existence in the lowest sections of the internodes of intercalar meristem. This formation ensures the process of breaking into the components.
The horsetail is a fairly peculiar department of plants and the presence of a sufficient number of vegetative features brings them closer to cereal.
Their competitiveness among other fernsshaped is explained by a large number of improvements to the autonomic system, which can include the following points:
Due to the features of the horded plants, even from a longrange coal period, they support their dominance in individual biocenoses (primarily applies to water bodies).
Horsetails have another feature: in such plants there are multiheater in the presence of, the development of which in the male or female side is clearly predetermined by the surrounding space. A clear trend is traced here: poor environmental conditions contribute to the development of male germs.
Similar features of the horsetail plants are a kind of transitional degree relative to equal power towards the typical indicator of the diverse.
The classifying feature of many horsetails can be called the existence of sporagiophores structures that carry sporangia; They differ significantly from the usual sporophylls of other plants of this kind (freebore) in their structure. Their mutts are simply formed by sporebearing zones in the stem, which are interspersed with standard leaves, or planted on the axles of the axes, forming strobels (sporebearing spikelets) of several types:
The value of horsetail plants
The main areas of the growth of the Horcasses are swampy or sour soil, forests. Horsetail is an essential component of herbal.
Halfish plants are moistureloving, and often are the problem of pastures and fields, however, on the other hand, they are able to sufficiently quickly prevent such a phenomenon as soil erosion.
Some of the horsetails have sufficient toxicity, but, nevertheless, is difficult to do with weed weed, despite the fact that the same field horsetail is a medicinal plant. Horsetail has long been used in folk medicine as an excellent remedy against edema, with some problems with blood circulation and as an effective diuretic: for this purpose its green shoots are used.
And in the autumn and winter periods, horseman plants can serve as good food for some animals (deer and wild boars), despite the hardness of the stem due to the large level of silica content, so horsetail can be recognized as a full-fledged link in the food chain.
Some species of horsetail plants from modern flora for the most part are determined as weeds, which also have significant toxic properties. So, on the pastures where these plants appear, you can sometimes encounter pets poisoning.
The accidental use of such plants can cause a fatal outcome for this reason, haying areas where horsetail appears, over time, they simply cease to be used for its intended purpose.
The value of horsetail plants in human activities can be recognized as significant exclusively from the field of pharmacology. Thanks to its medical properties, the horsetshaped are widely used among doctors and folk healers they are usually actively used in the quality of diuretic and hematopoietic drugs. Also, these funds are used as a wound healing and astringent, as well as a general strengthening resource; horsetail can serve perfectly with heart failure, regulate water-salt metabolism. If we talk about the compositions and fees with his participation, horsetail is able to treat hypertension and even gout.
Spring shoots of horsetails will be happy to be used in cooking, in fresh or boiled form, and are also an excellent ingredient for sauces or fillings, despite the fact that the total mass of horsetail is still inedible. Usually young spikelets or starchy rhizomes are used for food.
Types of horsetail plants
The horsetshaped department holds about three dozen species, which are widely known both in Africa and America (both north and southern), in Eurasia and even the Arctic: from swamp to tree, meadow, colorful, branchy and many other species).
Field horsetail
A type of horsetail is especially actively spreading a plant with a branched stem, a powerful root (even with subordinate roots). A peculiarity of horsetail is the presence of several types of shoots:
Such shoots are completely devoid of chlorophyll and have the brown color of scaly leaves without much branching, which are located in a mutual order on the stem. At their ends, spikelets are formed, where the development of the dispute takes place. Shoots after development of the dispute simply dry out.
Such shoots ensure the accumulation of nutrients of the spare plan directly in the underground parts tubers that are a system of vegetative propagation.
The growth of horsetails (here they are similar to the cereal) resembles the process of extension of the telescope, for which horsetails are called articulate in science.
Representatives of horsetail
Forest horsetail
Forest horsetail (photo: Nikolai Hirsch)
Meadow horsetail
Swamp (water) horsetail
Wintering (garden decorative or Japanese horsetail)
River (melodic horsetail)
Reed horsetail
Big (giant) horsetail
Branchy horsetail
A colorful horsetail
Life cycle of horded plants
Typically, horsetail plants are a field weed of perennial form, which winter in the form of a tuber, which has a good margin of necessary substances formed in it.
In early spring, pale pink spore-bearing shoots grow, the rhizomes growing about 20 cm with erect and unstable stems with a juicy core and sharp internodes and nodes growing. Plant leaves are usually underdeveloped, mediumsized and narrow, growing into the tube and forming mutations.
The escape ends with a sporebearing spike, the axis of which is covered with leaves in a modified form, which are called spores. Sporangia usually form on such leaves, disputes are already formed in them. In appearance, all disputes are the same, but physiologically can have significant differences. Typically, disputes are equipped with elaters, ribbon appendages that provide disputes with the ability to stay together. And at the time of ripening, the disputes are simply straightened and disputes are scattered.
If the conditions are favorable, then scattered disputes germinate and twofloor or separate adhesions grow from them (depending on the surrounding environmental conditions). Such archegonia and anteridia are deeply immersed in the embryo and its tissues: anteridia is a source of almost two hundred sperm, and through water they fall into the egg, forming an embryo, and an adult sporophyte is already growing from it.
After the ripening process, the shoots on which they ripen, die off, and instead of them the vegetative shoots of sporophyte are formed using the rhizome. Their stems are branched and have weakened scaly leaves. Their main task is to ensure the presence of nutrients for the rhizome pro.
That is exactly what the sexual and undeveloped generation of dedicated plants exist perfectly on their own.
Propagation of horsetail plants
Horbaric, just like plans, are able to multiply in three ways:
The vegetative method of propagation of horsetails is ensured with the participation of underground shoots, or tubers, and asexual reproduction is carried out using a dispute, which are formed in sporangia spikes. Когда спорангии (а, точнее, их оболочка) лопаются, то споры получают возможность рассеяться по поверхности. The disputes themselves are similar in appearance, but differ in their functionality: they are masculine and female, and such clan are the sexual generation of the plant. It is inside the spark that gametes are formed (male and female). And when the male gamete, sperm, merges with the female (egg), then the zygote is formed from which the embryo is formed, and as a consequence a new plant.
In the spring, sporebearing shoots that carry sporebearing spikelets are formed at horsetails. It is this escape that is responsible for sexual reproduction, and it is to it that the sporification system is attached to it.
The sporebearing system differs from the autonomic shoots with a formed strobil, or a modified shoot of a shortened shape, which serves many higher plants for the process of reproduction. It is Strobil that carries specialized leaves that serve for the formation of sporanges, t.e. organs of asexual reproduction.
