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An archegonium (pl: archegonia), from the ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 ???? ("beginning") and ????? ("offspring"), is a multicellular structure or organ of the gametophyte
Gametophyte

In plants and algae that undergo alternation of generations, a gametophyte is the multicellular structure, or phase, that is haploid, containing a single set of chromosomes:...
 phase of certain plant
Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
s producing and containing the ovum
Ovum

An ovum is a haploid female reproductive cell or gamete. Both animals and embryophytes have ova. The term ovule is used for the young ovum of an animal, as well as the plant structure that carries the female gametophyte and egg cell and develops into a seed after fertilization....
 or female gamete
Gamete

A gamete is a Cell that fuses with another gamete during fertilization in organisms that sexual reproduction. In species which produce two morphologically distinct types of gametes, and in which each individual produces only one type, a female is any individual which produces the larger type of gamete?called an ovum ?and a male produces th...
. The archegonium has a long neck and a swollen base.






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Archegonium
An archegonium (pl: archegonia), from the ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 ???? ("beginning") and ????? ("offspring"), is a multicellular structure or organ of the gametophyte
Gametophyte

In plants and algae that undergo alternation of generations, a gametophyte is the multicellular structure, or phase, that is haploid, containing a single set of chromosomes:...
 phase of certain plant
Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
s producing and containing the ovum
Ovum

An ovum is a haploid female reproductive cell or gamete. Both animals and embryophytes have ova. The term ovule is used for the young ovum of an animal, as well as the plant structure that carries the female gametophyte and egg cell and develops into a seed after fertilization....
 or female gamete
Gamete

A gamete is a Cell that fuses with another gamete during fertilization in organisms that sexual reproduction. In species which produce two morphologically distinct types of gametes, and in which each individual produces only one type, a female is any individual which produces the larger type of gamete?called an ovum ?and a male produces th...
. The archegonium has a long neck and a swollen base. Archegonia are typically located on the surface of the plant thallus
Thallus (tissue)

File:Sargassum weeds closeup.jpgThallus, from Latinized Greek language ?a???? , meaning a green shoot or twig, is an cellular differentiation vegetative tissue of some non-mobile organisms, which were previously known as the thallophytes....
, although in the horned liverworts
Hornwort

Hornworts are a group of bryophytes, or non-vascular plants, comprising the division Anthocerotophyta. The common name refers to the elongated horn-like structure, which is the sporophyte....
 they are embedded.

They are also much-reduced and embedded in the megagametophytes of gymnosperm
Gymnosperm

Gymnosperm is a group of spermatophyte seed-bearing plants with ovules on scales, which are usually arranged in cone-like structures. The other major group of seed-bearing plants, the angiosperms, [from the Greek, 'angion' - container] have ovules enclosed in a carpel, a sporophyll with fused margins....
s. The term is not used for angiosperms or the gnetophytes Gnetum
Gnetum

Gnetum is a genus of about 30-35 species of gymnosperms, the sole genus in the family Gnetaceae and order Gnetales. They are tropical evergreen trees, shrubs and lianas....
 and Welwitschia
Welwitschia

Welwitschia is a monotypic genus of gymnosperm plant, composed solely of the very distinct Welwitschia mirabilis. It is the only genus of the family Welwitschiaceae, in the order Welwitschiales, in the division Gnetophyta....
 because the megagametophyte is reduced to just a few cells, one of which differentiates into the egg cell. The function of surrounding the gamete is assumed in large part by diploid cells of the megasporangium (nucellus) inside the ovule
Ovule

Ovule literally means "small ovum." In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: The integuments forming its outer layer, the nucellus , and the megaspore-derived female gametophyte in its center....
. Gymnosperms have their archegonium formed after pollination
Pollination

Pollination in flowering plants and gymnosperms is the process that transfers pollen, which contain the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself....
 inside female pine cones (megastrobili).

The corresponding male organ is called the antheridium
Antheridium

An antheridium is a haploid structure or organ producing and containing male gametes . It is present in the gametophyte phase of lower plants like mosses and ferns, and also in the primitive vascular Psilotophyta....
.