The Gymnosperms are characterized by:

✅Explanation:
The defining characteristic of Gymnosperms is the presence of naked seeds. This means that their seeds are not enclosed within an ovary or a fruit, unlike the seeds of flowering plants (Angiosperms). Gymnosperm seeds develop on cones, where they lie exposed until they mature and are released.

🔑Key Points: :
-Gymnosperms are plants in which seeds are not enclosed by an ovary wall or seed coat, that is, seeds formed post-fertilization are naked.
-In gymnosperms, the male and female gametophytes do not live separately as free-living organisms.
-They continue to exist inside the sporangia on the sporophytes.
-From the microsporangium, the pollen grain is released.
-Pollen grains are carried through the air and encounter the opening of the ovules carried by megasporophylls.
-In the ovules, the pollen tube containing the male gametes expands toward the archegonia and releases its contents close to the archegonia's mouth.
-A zygote becomes an embryo after fertilization, and ovules become seeds. This crop of seeds is uncovered.