Evolutionary history of plants and radially symmetrical, is an integumented megasporangium surrounded by a cupule. The megasporangium bears an unopened distal extension protruding above the multilobed integument. It is suspected that the extension was involved in anemophilous pollination. "Runcaria" sheds new light on the sequence of character acquisition leading to the seed. "Runcaria" has all of the qualities of seed plants except for a solid seed coat and a system to guide the pollen to the ovule. The first spermatophytes (literally: "seed plants") – that is, the first plants to bear true seeds – are called pteridosperms: literally, "seed ferns", so called because their
Evolutionary history of plants today. Most plant groups were relatively unscathed by the Permo-Triassic extinction event, although the structures of communities changed. This may have set the scene for the appearance of the flowering plants in the Triassic (~), and their later diversification in the Cretaceous and Paleogene. The latest major group of plants to evolve were the grasses, which became important in the mid-Paleogene, from around . The grasses, as well as many other groups, evolved new mechanisms of metabolism to survive the low and warm, dry conditions of the tropics over the last . Land plants evolved from a group of green