Angiosperms represent the most advanced

group of vascular plants. They are commonly

called 'Flowering plants'. They exceed all
other major groups of living plants in number
and diversity.

Angiosperms grow in almost every kind of

habitat. They occur in very high altitudes,
even in Antarctica, in deserts, in shallow
waters and even on other plants as parasites.
The adult plant body of an Angiosperm is a
sporophyte with a well defined root, stem
and leaves. The root may be a taproot or
fibrous root. The stem may soft and green
(herbaceous) or hard and woody. The leaves
may be simple or compound.

The most important feature in angiosperms

is that they exhibit reproductive structures
called flowers. The flowers contain certain
structures arranged in four whorls. The
outer whorls contain accessory structures
such as sepals and petals and the two inner
whorls containing essential structures such
as stamens and carpels.
The stamens represent microsporophylls.
Each stamen has an anther and a filament.
The anther produces pollen grains containing
the highly reduced male gametophyte. The
carpels represent megasporophyll. They
enclose ovules containing the egg cell which
with the associated cells represent the
female gametophyte.
A characteristic feature of angiosperms is
the occurrence of a phenomenon called
double fertilisation one male gamete fuses
with the egg cell to form a zygote while
another male gamete fuses with a dipolid
secondary nucleus, to form a triploid
endosperm (triple fusion). Following
pollination and fertilization, the ovule
transforms into the seed while the ovary
that encloses the ovule, transforms into the
fruit. Thus, seeds are enclosed in fruits