Gymnospermae (plant group) en

Vascular plants such as conifers, cycads, ginkgo and others that reproduce by means of an exposed seed or ovule, as opposed to an angiosperm or flowering plant, which have seeds enclosed by mature ovaries or fruits. Gymnosperm seeds develop either on the surface of scale- or leaf-like appendages of cones, or at the end of short stalks. In early classification schemes, Gymnospermae were regarded as a taxonomic group, although modern classifications recognize that the fossil record suggests that angiosperms are nested within gymnosperms (thus living gymnosperms are not actually a clade).