Question

what are the importance of male and female strobili in the life cycle of gymnosperms
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Answer 1

Explanation:

The first seed plants evolved relatively early on, in the late Devonian. By the end of the Paleozoic they were competitive enough to replace the club mosses, horsetails, and whisk ferns, and become the dominant vegetation of the Mesozoic, the era of the dinosaurs. By the end of the Mesozoic, they too would be swept aside by the newly evolved angiosperms, the flowering plants. There are only 720 living species of gymnosperms, a pale remnant of a once diverse and dominant race.

Living gymnosperms are a diverse group of plants, most of which bear their sporangia in large, prominent strobili or cones. These strobili are similar to those of lycopsids and horsetails. Strobili consist of a shortened stem with several modified leaves (sporophylls) that bear sporangia. Like all seed plants, gymnosperms are heterosporous. The sporangia that generate the male microspores and female megaspores are usually borne on separate cones. Male cones (staminate cones) are typically much smaller than female cones (ovulate cones). Sporophylls that bear microsporangia are called microsporophylls. Sporophylls that bear macrosporangia are called macrosporophylls.