Vascular and Non vascular plants

Liverworts

Some have leafy gametophytes (1n); some are thalloid (leaflike that lie flat on the ground) - sporophytes are only a few mm high - a stalk raises the sporangium above ground level to allow spores to be dispersed - asexual reproduction by fragmenting the gametophyte - gemma (lens shaped clumps of cells for reproduction) (n)

Mosses

Gametophyte begins development as a protonema - some filaments of protonema contain chlorophyll - some help anchor to substrates called rhizoids - Some mosses have specialized cells called hydroids which die and form channels through which water can move (functionally similar to tracheid) - Sphagnum moss grows in cool, swampy places - the upper layers compress lower layers that are beginning to decompose, forming peat, which can be used as fuel

Hornworts

Gametophytes are flat plates of cells; sporophytes (green) look like small horns - Cells have a single large chloroplast (liverworts and mosses have numerous) - Sporophyte has a basal region capable of indefinite cell division - Symbiotic, nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria live in specialized internal cavities

Non vascular plants

Liverworts, Mosses, Hornworts

Vascular plants

Lycophytes, Horsetails, Ferns

Lycophytes

Includes Club mosses and relatives - Sister group to other vascular plants - Stems and true roots with dichotomous branching - Simple leaflike structures (microphylls) arrange spirally - Some have sporangia arranges in cone like clusters called strobili

Horsetails

Only 15 species in the genus Equisetum - leaves grow in whorls - silica in cell walls - also called scouring rushes - true roots - sporangia on short stalks are called sporangiophores

Fern

Most are terrestrial, a few are aquatic - large leaves with branching vascular strands - sporophytes can be large and very long lived - most live in moist habitat - water is required to transport male gametes - sporangia are borne on a stalk in clusters called sori on the underside of the leaves - sori are sporangia - Both gametophyte and sporophyte are nutritionally independent (unlike in mosses)