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Genera like Selaginella and Salvinia produce two kinds of spores. Such plants are known as:
Hetero = different, sporous = spore-producing! Plants that produce two morphologically and sexually distinct kinds of spores (megaspores and microspores), like Selaginella and Salvinia, are defined as Heterosporous! Match Option (4)!
While the majority of pteridophytes produce spores of similar kind (homosporous), select genera produce two distinct kinds of spores differing in size and developmental fate:
Plants exhibiting this dimorphic spore condition are termed heterosporous. The classic NCERT examples in pteridophytes are *Selaginella* and *Salvinia* (as well as *Marsilea* and *Azolla*).
Heterospory is considered an essential evolutionary prerequisite to the development of the seed habit because the female gametophyte is retained on the parent sporophyte.
Diagnose every choice: Know exactly why the right option works and why distractors fail.
A sorus is a cluster of sporangia; "homosorus" refers to sori structure, not the production of two spore types.
Heterosorus is an anatomical descriptor of sporangial clusters, not the biological term for spore dimorphism.
Homosporous plants produce only one kind of identical spore (e.g., Equisetum, Lycopodium, Dryopteris).
Heterosporous plants produce two distinct kinds of spores (microspores and megaspores), exemplified by Selaginella and Salvinia.
NTA intentionally constructed distractors (1) Homosorus and (2) Heterosorus alongside (3) Homosporous and (4) Heterosporous to catch hasty candidates reading only prefixes.
"Genera like Selaginella and Salvinia which produce two kinds of spores, macro (large) and micro (small) spores, are known as heterosporous."
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