Bryophytes

General Characteristics:

• Contains the nonvascular land plants.

• Lacking true vascular tissue.

• Having the gametophyte as the dominant, photosynthetic, persistent, and free-living phase of the life cycle.

• Relatively small.

• Sporophyte of the liverworts, hornworts, and mosses is relatively small, ephemeral, and attached to and nutritionally dependent upon the gametophyte.

  • Only produces one sporangium.

Group includes:

• Liverworts

• Mosses

• Hornworts

Liverworts

Description:

“also traditionally called the Hepaticae, are one of the monophyletic groups that are descendants of some of the first land plants.”

General Characteristics:

• Small portion of land plant flora.

• Most are found in moist, shady areas.

• Distinctive oil bodies

• Elaters

• Two morphological types of liverwort gametophytes:

  thalloid and leafy

• Antheridia and Archegonia that develop on the gametophyte.

• Some liverwort taxa possess antheridiophores bearing antheridia and archegoniophores bearing archegonia.

• Capsule

Mosses

Description:

“The mosses, or Musci, are by far the most speciose and diverse of the three major groups of nonvascular land plants and inhabit a number of ecological niches.”

General Characteristics:

• space

Hornworts

Description:

“The hornworts, formally known as Anthocerotae, are a monophyletic group comprising a third extant lineage of non-vascular land plants.”