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Introduction
Mosses, liverworts, and hornworts comprise the division Bryophyta or bryophytes.
They possess including a waxy cuticle to protect the leaves, stomata to allow gaseous exchange, and gametangia that protect developing embryos.
Unlike other plants, bryophytes do not have true organs, such as leaves, stems, or roots. In place of roots, most bryophytes have thin, hairy tubes called rhizoids that provide anchorage and nutrient uptake from the soil.
and have a life cycle in which the gametophyte is much larger than the sporophyte The male gametes, flagellated sperm, are produced in the antheridium, the egg is produced and fertilised (by sperm) in the archegonium.
In the life cycle, gametangia in the gametophytes produce haploid gametes. When the plant is wet, the flagellated sperm swim to gametangia containing eggs, and fertilize the eggs to produce diploid zygotes.
These divide mitotically, and eventually grow into sporophytes; each sporophyte remains attached to a gametophyte.
In the sporangia a top the sporophyte stalks, meiosis produces haploid spores, which are released, and soon germinate and begin to mitotically divide into gametophytes.
Plants
+------ Mosses
+------+ | |
+------+ | |
+------------- Hornworts
+-------------------- Liverworts
------+ |
+-------------------------- Charophytes
3 Classes
1. Class Hepaticopsida (Liverwort) 2. Class Anthocerotopsida (Hornworts) 3. Class Bryopsida (True mosses)
Class Hepaticopsida
Liverworts
Liverworts
Class Hepaticae comprises the liverworts. These are small plants, no more than half an inch off the ground, that can be flat and ribbon-shaped or leafy.
About 8,500 species of liverworts have been named Genus Marchantia, Riccia The gametophyte generation may be leafy like a moss, or thallose, often bilaterally symmetrical and lobed,
Liverworts grow close to the ground, and the sporophyte generation consists of a small stalk with a podlike capsule, the sproangium, on top.
while they lack a midrib. They produce sporophytes but also often reproduce asexually with pieces of tissue call gemma, which are bounced by rain out of gemma cups.
Liverworts gametophyte
There are two main groups of liverworts :the leafy liverworts, with about 84% of liverwort species, and the thallose liverworts.
oil bodies
Thallose liverworts
instead of a stem-leaf structure, consist of a flattened thallus. Both the leaves of the leafy liverworts and the thallus are only one to several cells thick.
Reproduction: gametophyte
Archegonidiophore
Archegonial stalk
Archegonial head
Antheridial stalk
Antheridial head
Antheridiophore
Liverworts sporophyte
sporophytes
Foot Seta Anther elater, elaterophore
Anthocerotopsida
Hornworts
Class
Hornworts
Class Anthocerotae comprises the hornworts. Gametophytes are small, usually only one to two centimeters across, with no significant height.
Hornworts are similar to liverworts except each cell only has one large chloroplast rather than many smaller ones, and the sporophytes are elongated capsules.
The gametophyte is made up of a thallus, a simple plant body resembling a mound of ruffled, dark-green leaflets.
The long, slender sporophyte generations grow upward from the thallus and are typically 0.5 to 12 centimeters in height.
Hornworts grow on exposed, moist, shaded soil, and so they can be seen in places such as around the edges of lakes and rivers, as well as by the sides of roads.
Like other bryophytes, hornworts are anchored to the ground by thin rhizoids. Hornworts are closely related to marine algae,
sporophytes
Foot Anther No seta Pseudo-elater
dehisced sporophyte showing the single, longitudinally-spiraled suture with adhering spores.
Class Bryopsida
True mosses
Moss shoots
Mosses
is the largest and most diverse class of bryophytes, with more than 9,000 species. Mosses (the gametophyte plants) are anchored in the soil with thin rhizoids, which facilitate nutrient uptake.
A short stem grows up from the rhizoids, and is covered by tiny leaves arranged in a spiral pattern around the stem, reaching no more than six inches in height.
Though mosses contain no vascular tissues, many species have a midrib vein, running from the base of the plant up the spiral, that distributes water and nutrients.
There are two types of gameteproducing organs that grow in the gametophytes: the antheridia, which produce sperm cells, and the archegonia, which produce egg cells. About half of the mosses contain both of these on the same plant.
The sporophytes are stalks attached to the gametophytes, with a sporangium on top of each stalk. The mouth of the sporangium, in most species, is covered by an operculum, which functions like a lid.
calyptra (cap) operculum (lid) annulus (ring) peristome culumela spores air space
apophysis seta
Controlling operculum activity, and thus the release of spores from the sporangium, is the peristome, composed of many small, toothlike structures around the operculum.
Mosses often grow together in vast mats that hold up all of the organisms, compensating for the lack of a rigid structure. Mats of mosses are spongy and can hold in water.
In one group of mosses, the peat mosses (Sphagnum), decaying mats accumulate to form peat, which can be used as a fuel, in addition to having several other domestic uses.
Mosses have a lot of biological importance in their habitats. They serve as food for small animals, and their ability to hold vast quantities of water helps prevent soil erosion and flooding.
Moss gametophyte
Gametophyte with excised leaves making visible the sporophyte with embedded foot.
Longitudinal section of
an antheridium showing
packets of spermatids arranged in two rows as is typical of other mosses.
Moss sporophyte
Habit shot of female shoots with terminal sporophytes and male shoots with clusters of orange antheridia surrounded by leaves.
protonema
Sporophyte
Sporophyte with attached calyptra Female gametophyte Female gametophyte with mature sporophyte
Sphagnum
Sphagnum