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Bryophytes are all embryophyte
Embryophyte

The embryophytes are the most familiar group of plants. They include trees, flowers, ferns, mosses, and various other green land plants. All are complex multicellular eukaryotes with specialized reproductive organs....
s ('land 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') that are non-vascular
Non-vascular plant

Non-vascular plants is a general term for those plants without a vascular tissue . Although non-vascular plants lack these particular tissues, a number of non-vascular plants possess tissues specialized for internal transport of water....
: they have tissues and enclosed reproductive systems, but they lack vascular tissue
Vascular tissue

Vascular tissue is a complex conducting tissue , formed of more than one cell type, found in vascular plants. The primary components of vascular tissue are the xylem and phloem....
 that circulates liquids. They neither have flowers nor produce seed
Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
s, reproducing via spore
Spore

In biology, a spore is a reproduction structure that is adapted for biological dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavorable conditions....
s. The term bryophyte comes from 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....
 ß???? - bruon, "tree-moss, oyster-green" < ß??? - bruo, "to be full to bursting, to abound" + f?t?? - fyton "plant".
bryophytes do not form a monophyletic group but consist of three groups, the Marchantiophyta (liverworts), Anthocerotophyta (hornworts), and Bryophyta
Moss

Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1?10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations....
 (mosses).

Modern studies of the land plants generally show one of two patterns.






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Bryophytes are all embryophyte
Embryophyte

The embryophytes are the most familiar group of plants. They include trees, flowers, ferns, mosses, and various other green land plants. All are complex multicellular eukaryotes with specialized reproductive organs....
s ('land 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') that are non-vascular
Non-vascular plant

Non-vascular plants is a general term for those plants without a vascular tissue . Although non-vascular plants lack these particular tissues, a number of non-vascular plants possess tissues specialized for internal transport of water....
: they have tissues and enclosed reproductive systems, but they lack vascular tissue
Vascular tissue

Vascular tissue is a complex conducting tissue , formed of more than one cell type, found in vascular plants. The primary components of vascular tissue are the xylem and phloem....
 that circulates liquids. They neither have flowers nor produce seed
Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
s, reproducing via spore
Spore

In biology, a spore is a reproduction structure that is adapted for biological dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavorable conditions....
s. The term bryophyte comes from 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....
 ß???? - bruon, "tree-moss, oyster-green" < ß??? - bruo, "to be full to bursting, to abound" + f?t?? - fyton "plant".

Bryophyte classification

The bryophytes do not form a monophyletic group but consist of three groups, the Marchantiophyta (liverworts), Anthocerotophyta (hornworts), and Bryophyta
Moss

Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1?10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations....
 (mosses).

Bryo Cladogram
Modern studies of the land plants generally show one of two patterns. In one of these patterns, the liverworts were the first to diverge, followed by the hornworts, while the mosses are the closest living relatives of the polysporangiates
Polysporangiophyte

Polysporangiophytes are plants with a structure of branching axes terminating in sporangium. This includes most land plants except for the bryophytes....
 (which include the vascular plant
Vascular plant

Vascular plants are those plants that have lignin tissue for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant. Vascular plants include the ferns, clubmosses, flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms....
s). In the other pattern, the hornworts were the first to diverge, followed by the vascular plants, while the mosses are the closest living relatives of the liverworts. Originally the three groups were brought together as the three classes of division Bryophyta. However, since the three groups of bryophytes form a paraphyletic group, they now are placed in three separate divisions.

Bryophyte sexuality


These plants are generally 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:...
-oriented; that is, the normal plant is the haploid gametophyte, with the only diploid structure being the sporangium
Sporangium

A sporangium is a plant or fungus structure producing and containing spores. Sporangia occur in Flowering plant, gymnosperms, ferns, fern allies, bryophytes, Algaee, and Fungus....
 in season. As a result, bryophyte sexuality is very different from that of other plants. There are two basic categories of sexuality in bryophytes:

  • Dioicous bryophytes produce only antheridia
    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....
     (male organs) or archegonia
    Archegonium

    An archegonium , from the ancient Greek ???? and ????? , is a multicellular structure or organ of the gametophyte phase of certain plants producing and containing the ovum or female gamete....
     (female organs) on a single plant body.
  • Monoicous
    Monoicous

    Monoicous organisms are defined as having both sperm-producing and egg-producing reproductive organs in the same individual. By contrast dioicous organisms produce male and female reproductive organs on different individuals....
     bryophytes produce both antheridia
    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....
     and archegonia
    Archegonium

    An archegonium , from the ancient Greek ???? and ????? , is a multicellular structure or organ of the gametophyte phase of certain plants producing and containing the ovum or female gamete....
     on the same plant body.


Some bryophyte species may be either monoicous or dioicous depending on environmental conditions. Other species grow exclusively with one type of sexuality.

Notice that these terms are not the same as monoecious and dioecious, which refer to whether or not a sporophyte
Sporophyte

All land plants, and some algae, have life cycles in which a haploid gametophyte generation alternates with a diploid sporophyte, the generation of a plant or alga that has a double set of chromosomes....
 plant bears one or both kinds of gametophyte. Those terms apply only to seed plants
Spermatophyte

The spermatophytes comprise those plants that produce seeds. They are a subset of the embryophytes or land plants. The living spermatophytes form five groups:...
.

Bryophyte life cycle

Dispersal in bryophytes is via spore
Spore

In biology, a spore is a reproduction structure that is adapted for biological dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavorable conditions....
s; they neither have flowers nor produce seed
Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
s. Bryophytes do produce gametes that fuse to form a zygote, which in turn develops into an embryo, but this is not contained in a seed as in gymnosperms and angiosperms.

Gallery


See also

  • Embryophyte
    Embryophyte

    The embryophytes are the most familiar group of plants. They include trees, flowers, ferns, mosses, and various other green land plants. All are complex multicellular eukaryotes with specialized reproductive organs....
  • Marchantiophyta (liverworts)
  • Anthocerotophyta
    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....
     (hornworts)
  • Bryophyta
    Moss

    Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1?10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations....
     (mosses)
  • Plant sexuality
    Plant sexuality

    Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes Morphology aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....


External links

  • Glime, Janice M., 2007. , Volume 1. Physiological Ecology. Ebook sponsored by Michigan Technological University and the International Association of Bryologists.