Evolutionary history of plants foliage consisted of fern-like fronds, although they were not closely related to ferns. The oldest fossil evidence of seed plants is of Late Devonian age, and they appear to have evolved out of an earlier group known as the progymnosperms. These early seed plants ranged from trees to small, rambling shrubs; like most early progymnosperms, they were woody plants with fern-like foliage. They all bore ovules, but no cones, fruit or similar. While it is difficult to track the early evolution of seeds, the lineage of the seed ferns may be traced from the simple trimerophytes through homosporous Aneurophytes. This
Evolutionary history of plants variance in the population. Therefore, if there is only a small population of plants in an area with the ability to reproduce together, genetic drift may counteract the effects of selection putting the plant in a disadvantageous position to fungi which can evolve at a normal rate. The variance in both the host and pathogen population is a major determinant of evolutionary success compared to the other species. The greater the genetic variance, the faster the species can evolve to counteract the other organism’s avoidance or defensive mechanisms. Due to the process of pollination for plants, the effective population size