Abstract
It's hard to imagine the Rockies or the Alps without forests, but until about 360 million years ago the Earth's mountains were probably bare of vegetation. Almost a Martian landscape, this was a world of rocky screes, mudflows and flash floods. Lichen may have clung here and there, but as for large plants, most were restricted to wetland delta‐plains close to sea level. But everything was about to change. The evolution of the seed in Late Devonian times altered the face of our planet forever. Analogous to the reptile egg in the animal kingdom, the seed freed plants from the necessity of surface water for reproduction, and paved the way for the invasion of mountainous terrain.
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