Gymnosperms differ from angiosperms most obviously on the basis of the naked-seed habit in the former and the enclosure of seeds within a fruit in the latter. The pollen grain of gymnosperms, when shed from the microsporangium, has more than two cells (three in cycads and four in Ginkgo and conifers).
Furthermore, gymnosperm pollen lands on the ovule directly, whereas in angiosperms pollen lands on the stigma of a carpel and germinates there, with the pollen tube growing through stigmatic and stylar tissues to reach the ovule. In angiosperm pollen tubes, a total of three cells make up the male gametophyte; gymnosperms have more.
The female gametophyte in gymnosperms is much larger than that of angiosperms and serves as the source of food for the developing embryo sporophyte. The female gametophyte of angiosperms consists normally of just a few cells. Both sperm cells in an angiosperm pollen tube are functional, one fertilizing the egg, the other joining with two other nuclei of the female gametophyte. Division of this latter cell forms a multicellular tissue (endosperm) in which food is stored for the embryo. Gymnospermous ovules typically have only one integument; most angiosperms have two.
Gymnosperm, any vascular plant that reproduces by means of an exposed seed, or ovule, as opposed to an angiosperm, or flowering plant, whose seeds are enclosed by mature ovaries, or fruits. The seeds of many gymnosperms (literally, “naked seed”) are borne in cones and are not visible.
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These cones, however, are not the same as fruits. During pollination, the immature male gametes, or pollen grains, sift among the cone scales and land directly on the ovules, which contain the immature female gametes, rather than on elements of a flower (the stigma and carpel) as in angiosperms. Furthermore, at maturity, the cone expands to reveal the naked seeds.