Euphyllophytes, is a taxon sometimes unranked, sometimes

placed at the informal rank of subdivision within the tracheophytes. It

is sister to subdivision Lycopodiophyta. Euphyllophytina contains the
two groups Spermatophytes (seed plants) and Monilophytes (ferns), as
well as a number of extinct fossil taxa. The division of the extant
tracheophytes into three monophyletic lineages is supported in
multiple molecular studies. Other researchers state that taking fossils
into account leads to different conclusions, for example that the ferns
are not monophyletic.
The monilophytes are believed to be the sister group to the seed
plants. The clade composed of the monilophytes and seed plants is
known as Euphyllophyta. The sister group to Euphyllophyta is
Lycophyta (the club mosses, spike mosses, and quillworts). The
lycophytes and euphyllophytes together comprise the vascular plants
(Tracheophyta). Monilophyta is similar to the traditional group known
as the pteridophytes (ferns and fern allies), which consisted of all the
seedless vascular plants. However, the lycophytes were considered
pteridophytes but are excluded from the monilophytes since the
remaining "pteridophytes" (which now constitute Monilophyta) are
believed to be more closely related to the seed plants than they are to
the lycophytes.
The Spermatophytes are more commonly known as the seed
plants. The most obvious characteristic shared by all seed plants is the
production of seeds. There are five groups that together constitute the
extant seed plants: The angiosperms (flowering plants), the conifers,
the gnetophytes (Ephedra, Gnetum, and Welwitschia), the cycads,
Ginkgo biloba. The last four of these groups are often referred to
together as the gymnosperms.
Euphyllophytes "Eu-phyllo-phyte" (True-Leaved Plant)
Stems
Upright growth of stems with lateral branches (pseudomonopodial
growth)
Branching in 360 (spiral branching off a main axis)
Leaves
True leaves in most derived forms
Ancestral members are leafless
Roots
True roots

Reproductive structures
Ancestral member spore-bearing; derived members are seedbearing

Monilophytes (Ferns)
Stems
Vascular tissue present
Protoxylem in the lobes of the vascular stele
Mesarch maturation
Leaves
Wide range of simple and compound leaves
Some members with reduced or absent leaves
Roots
Roots adventitious, born from rhizomes
Reproductive structures
Sporangia at tips of lateral stems in stem group
Sporangia born abaxial on leaves in ferns
Spermatophytes
Stems
Variable
Leaves
Variable
Reproductive Structure
Plants with a megasporangium (nucellus) surrounded by an
integument
Single megaspore retained after meiosis
Female gametophyte retained inside megaspore

Centrarch: this condition in found in plants with protosteles, in which

cells mature from the center of the axis to the periphery. A single
protoxylem strand is found in the center of the axis, and the
metaxylem form around it.
Exarch: this condition has more than one strand of primary xylem in
a stem or root, and the xylem develops from the outside inwards
towards the center, i.e. centripetally. The metaxylem is thus closest to
the center of the stem or root and the protoxylem closest to the
periphery.
Mesarch: this condition is when there is more than one strand of
primary xylem in a stem or root, and the xylem develops from the
middle of a strand in both directions. The metaxylem is thus on both
the peripheral and central sides of the strand with the protoxylem
between the metaxylem (possibly surrounded by it).
Endarch: this condition is when more than one strand of primary
xylem in a stem or root, and the xylem develops from the inside
outwards towards the periphery, i.e. centrifugally. The protoxylem is
thus closest to the center of the stem or root and the metaxylem
closest to the periphery.