Crossword clues for gymnosperm
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Gymnosperm \Gym"no*sperm\ (j[i^]m"n[-o]*sp[~e]rm), n. (Bot.) A plant that bears naked seeds (i. e., seeds not inclosed in an ovary), as the common pine and hemlock. Cf. Angiosperm.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. (context botany English) Any plant such as a conifer whose seeds are not enclosed in an ovary.
WordNet
n. plants of the class Gymnospermae having seeds not enclosed in an ovary
Wikipedia
The gymnosperms are a group of seed-producing plants that includes conifers, cycads, Ginkgo, and Gnetales. The term "gymnosperm" comes from the Greek composite word γυμνόσπερμος (γυμνός gymnos, "naked" and σπέρμα sperma, "seed"), meaning "naked seeds", after the unenclosed condition of their seeds (called ovules in their unfertilized state). Their naked condition stands in contrast to the seeds and ovules of flowering plants ( angiosperms), which are enclosed within an ovary. Gymnosperm seeds develop either on the surface of scales or leaves, often modified to form cones, or at the end of short stalks as in Ginkgo.
The gymnosperms and angiosperms together compose the spermatophytes or seed plants. By far the largest group of living gymnosperms are the conifers (pines, cypresses, and relatives), followed by cycads, gnetophytes ( Gnetum, Ephedra and Welwitschia), and Ginkgo (a single living species).
Usage examples of "gymnosperm".
The angiosperms -- flowering plants-- were gradually taking land away from the gymnosperms.
Belonging to an ancient group of gymnosperms, the hideous Welwitschia mirabilis could live for a thousand years or more.
Many of the land plants in the Permian Period such as conifers, sphenopsids, ferns, and seed ferns continued into the Triassic, while other gymnosperms such as cycads, cycadeoids and ginkgos appeared for the first time.
Belonging to an ancient group of gymnosperms, the hideous Welwitschia mirabilis could live for a thousand years or more.
These things had come from Mesozoic gymnosperms and conifers - especially Cretaceous cycads - and from fan palms and early angiosperms of plainly Tertiary date.
The sun seemed lower now, its horizontal rays illuminating the tops of the gymnosperms and casting the shadows beneath into deeper gloom.
Its lower levels were surrounded so tightly by the giant gymnosperms that the tower looked like a weathered crag rising from a green sea.
The sun set almost directly behind us, and for a few minutes the river was as red as molten lava, the undersides of the gymnosperms on either side aflame with reflected light.
Looking out from the hotel balcony shortly after eight o'clock, Kerans watched the sun rise behind the dense groves of giant gymnosperms crowding over the roofs of the abandoned department stores four hundred yards away on the east side of the lagoon.
Giant groves of gymnosperms stretched in dense clumps along the rooftops of the submerged buildings, smothering the white rectangular outlines.
The older gymnosperms did not become extinct, but assumed a minority role in the new ecology.
It was not that the birds drove out the flying reptiles, or that the teleosts and sharks drove out the ammonites and certain corals and swimming reptiles, or that the angiosperms drove out the gymnosperms, and certainly the mammals did not drive out the land reptiles.
Gymnosperms, cone-bearers, winged-seed scatterers, older and sterner by far than the soft-leaved, frail-limbed oaks and aspens.