| vascular plant Any of various plants that have the vascular tissues xylem and phloem. The vascular plants include all seed-bearing plants (the gymnosperms and angiosperms) and the pteridophytes (including the ferns, lycophytes, and horsetails). Also called tracheophyte. Compare nonvascular plant. |
any of the vascular plants, members of the division, or phylum, Tracheophyta, numbering some 260,000 species and including all of the conspicuous flora of the Earth today. Tracheophyte, meaning "tracheid plant," refers to the water-conducting cells (called tracheids, or tracheary elements) that show spiral bands like those in the walls of the tracheae, or air tubes, of insects.