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Gymnosperms

A gymnosperm is a seed-bearing vascular plant that doesn’t sport flowers. The name means “naked seed”. So gymnosperms are more ancient than the flowering plants. Cycads are among the most primitive gymnosperms. Ginkgo is equally ancient.

Conifers are also gymnosperms, and during the Jurassic they dominated the forest scene. But ferns were also important. There were both ordinary ferns and tree ferns. However modern ferns are all different species. All the Jurassic ferns went extinct.

This picture of the Jurassic Forest comes from Hans Steur’s website “Hans’ paleobotany pages”.