Spore plants

Spore carriers ( sporangia grouped to Sori ) in the deer-tongue fern ( Asplenium scolopendrium )

Atrichum undulatum , carrier of spores in mosses

Spore plants are plants that have spores as organs of distribution . Spore plants are not a botanical taxonomic group ( taxon ) because they are not monophyletic .

Two groups of land plants are spore plants:

• Vascular spore plants (Pteridophyta)
• Mosses (Bryophyta)

They are in contrast to the seed plants (Spermatophyta), in which the seeds are the organs of distribution. These three groups together form the land plants (Embryophyta). Seed plants and vascular pore plants together form the sub-kingdom vascular plants (Tracheobionta).

In the kingdom of mushrooms (Fungi) there are also spores as organs of distribution. Also, bacteria , protozoa and algae spores. Algae are lower plants, but not blue-green algae, fungi and bacteria, each of which is a separate kingdom of organisms .