The earliest life forms were found only in water, as the oceans provided the most conducive atmosphere for life. Life was absent on land, and the earlier forms of plants were water-bound.
However, as time passed, life started migrating on the wetlands. Some of the earliest green plants began to grow in the soil around 450 million years ago. The first plants looked like mosses, liverworts and hornworts as they in all probability developed from seaweeds or algae.
Most of these plants lived on wet soil and gradually they started reproducing. We see their descendants today in rocky lands, sandy plains, bogs and marshes. In the course of time, around 400 million years ago, more sophisticated life forms evolved into being. These plants looked like the modern ferns, horsetails and club mosses.They gradually developed roots, leaves and stems. Ferns were the first of this kind.
Do you know that the little ferns and mosses were giants once upon a time? These plants were once the size of a tree. Some species of ferns and club mosses in some parts of the world like New Zealand are still having the size of a tree. By the time dinosaurs walked on Earth, some plants had developed the ability to reproduce by means of their seeds. There were vast forests of seeds ferns, ginkgo and cycads, across the planet.
Cone bearing trees known as conifers developed later, about 300 million years ago. Pines, firs, spruces, cedars and red woods are some trees that belonged to this group and had needle like, or scale like leaves too.
About 150 million years ago, the first flowering plants evolved. They had well-protected seeds which gave them an advantage over plants with more exposed seeds. Today, there is hardly any place where flowering plants are not found.
Picture Credit : Google
