1. A plant of a division that includes ferns, horsetails, and clubmosses, characterized by the absence of flowers and seeds and the presence of vascular tissue.
Usage: botanical term; commonly used in biology and ecology

Examples

• Ferns are the most familiar pteridophytes found in gardens and forests.
• Pteridophytes reproduce through spores rather than seeds.
• The fossil record shows that pteridophytes were among the earliest land plants.
• In tropical rainforests, pteridophytes thrive in the humid understory.
• Students learned to identify different pteridophytes by examining their frond patterns.
• Horsetails and clubmosses are ancient pteridophytes that still exist today.