Compare and contrast homospory and heterospory in Biology?

In kingdom plantae, homospory is observed in bryophytes and the majority of see free vascular plants (ferns and such), whereas heterospory is observed in more derived seed free vascular plants (phylum lycopodiophyta, for example) gymnosperms, and angiosperms.

The difference is that heterosporous plants give rise to distinctly different spores (hence the prefix "hetero"), produced from distinctly different sporangia, which develop into male and female gametophytes. Homosporous plants only produce one type of spore (hence "homo") which -may- develop into either a male or female gametophyte.

In other words, the fate of the spore of being male or female in a heterosporous plant is determined by sporangia that produces it; female spores will be produced megasporangia, and male spores will be produced microsporangia. This isn't the case in a homosporous plant which produces male and female spores from the same sporangia.

(edit) I totally forgot seed and spore part of the question.

A seed is the structure formed by a mature ovule following fertilization of the egg. A spore is usually a single cell that differentiates into a adult organism. The important thing to note that is that spores do not fuse with other cells to give rise to the adult organism.

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Compare and contrast homospory and heterospory in Biology?

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