Seed Plant Phylogeny

You may be surprised to find out that the relationship between the angiosperms and the gymnosperm groups is still subject to much debate. One of the perennial questions is the position of the gnetophytes.

 One of the reasons for this debate is that the Gnetophytes (one of the gymnosperm taxa we discussed) show several features that are typically associated with the angiosperms, including double fertilisation and vessel elements in their vascular tissue. Do these indicate a close relationship and that the gnetophytes are a sister taxa to the angiosperms or are they the results of parallel evolution?

Wikipedia actually has a nice clear discussion of the alternative hypotheses or for a meatier discussion there's this paper from 2009 in the American Journal of Botany:
Phylogenetic relationships among seed plants: Persistent questions and the limits of molecular data

Ancient plant has hot, stinky sex

If you go into science journalism you too can get to write headlines like this:
Ancient plant has hot, stinky sex
The actual paper this news article is based on has the decidedly more prosaic title of:
Odor-Mediated Push-Pull Pollination in Cycads
The reproductive organs of some plants self-heat, release scent, and attract pollinators. The relations among these processes are not well understood, especially in the more ancient, nonflowering gymnosperm lineages. We describe the influence of plant volatiles in an obligate pollination mutualism between an Australian Macrozamia cycad (a gymnosperm with male and female individuals) and its specialist thrips pollinator, Cycadothrips chadwicki. Pollen-laden thrips leave male cycad cones en masse during the daily thermogenic phase, when cone temperatures and volatile emissions increase dramatically and thrips are repelled. As thermogenesis declines, total volatile emissions diminish and cones attract thrips, resulting in pollination of female cones. Behavioral and electrophysiological tests on thrips reveal that variations in b-myrcene and ocimene emissions by male and female cones are sufficient to explain the observed sequential thrips' repellence (push) and attraction (pull). These dynamic interactions represent complex adaptations that enhance the likelihood of pollination and may reflect an intermediate state in the evolution of biotic pollination.