Review Questions:

1. Some vascular plants produce seeds; others do not. Vascular plants that do not produce
seeds are known as Vascular Cryptograms whereas vascular plants that do not
produce seeds are known as Spermatophytes. Are there any plants that produce seeds
but which do not have vascular tissues? None
2. What are some of the modifications necessary if an alga is to become evolutionary
adapted to living on land? Is a single modification sufficient, or are several necessary?
- In environments where long, dry periods alternated with long, moist periods, the
optimal survival strategy probably was formation of dormant, drought-resistant
spores, but spore production requires major metabolic conversions; if the dry periods
were brief, the ability to continue active metabolism by conserving water and
avoiding desiccation would have been advantageous. In addition, a water-proofing
cuticle would have been selectively advantageous.
3. Why would it be necessary for an evolutionary line to develop stomata and guard cells
before it developed an extremely impervious cuticle?
- These probably allowed the algal ancestors of plants not only to survive but also to
be metabolically active during short dry periods; however, a consequence of much
greater advantage was that the algae were safe from predators while out of the
water. These mutations enabled the algae to be active for even longer periods out of
water. These mutations also probably involved increasing the size of the body and
the impermeability of the cuticle, but there had to be the simultaneous evolution of
stomatal pores and guard cells because a more protective cuticle also prevents the
entry of carbon dioxide.
Why must vascular tissues precede the evolution of roots and active apical meristems?
- Relatively strong, vertical stems could be supported. Large plant bodies could be
integrated, and parts could differentiate and specialize.
4. The following organisms are often called mosses, but they are not actually closely
related to mosses at all. What groups of plants do they actually belong?
- Spanish Moss Epiphyte
- Club mosses Lycophyte
- Slimy, bright green mosses of ponds and slow-moving streams Green algae
- Reindeer moss Lichen
5. What are the three groups of nonvascular plants? How would you determine whether an
unknown specimen is a vascular plant?
- The three groups are mosses, liverworts and hornworts. Vascular plants have
vascular tissues, which circulate resources through the plant. This feature allows
vascular plants to evolve to a larger size than non-vascular plants, which lack these
specialized conducting tissues and are therefore restricted to relatively small sizes.

6.

The nonvascular plants of this chapter are believed to be true plants, just as ferns,
conifers, and flowering plants are true plants; however, there are two tissues that the
nonvascular plants do not have. Which two tissues?
- Xylem and phloem
7. If the leptoids of mosses were found to contain a protein whose gene had the same
nucleotide sequence as the gene that codes for P-protein, would that be significant
evidence for either the homology or analogy of leptoids and phloem?
- Yes, P-protein is the small pore inside the sieve cell found in phloem which works to
transport food. Leptoids also do the same thing - to conduct food.
8. You will see sporophytes only if you examine mosses closely. They look like green or
brown HAIRS standing up on the green gametophyte, but sporophytes are only
present at certain times of the year (circle one: present almost all the time, only present
at certain times of the layer).
9. Do mosses have an alternation of isomorphic or heteromorphic generations? That is,
can you easily tell a moss gametophyte from a moss sporophyte? When we look at leafy
green moss plants, what we are seeing-gametophyte or sporophyte? In a flowering plant
species, would the equivalent stage be the plant of the pollen grains and
megagametophytes?
- Like all plants, nonvascular plants have a life cycle with an alternation of
heteromorphic generations. Any green moss plant is the gametophyte, the haploid
phase and it is photosynthetic, perennial and collects mineral nutrients.
Megagametophytes of flowering plants typically have only six cells other than the
egg and both synergids and antipodals often degenerate just after the egg is
fertilized.
10. The leafy, green moss plants that are so familiar are gametophytes, haploid plants. This
is very different from flowering plants and other seed plants. Does a leafy green moss
plant grow from a spore or from a fertilized egg? Does the moss plant have both a
paternal and a maternal parent?
- Leafy green moss plant grows from a spore.
- Moss plant have both paternal and maternal parent
11. Draw a single moss plant, similar to the one in Figure 20-10. Be certain to show the
gametophyte and the sporophyte. Now draw on e without the sporophyte, showing only
the gametophyte. The sporophytes usually have only a very brief life, and after they
shed their spores, the gametophytes let them die.
- NEEDS DRAWING.
12. Draw and label the life cycle of a moss; be certain to show gametangia and sporangia.
- NEEDS DRAWING.
Which parts are haploid and which are diploid?
- HAPLOID: Spores, Male gametophyte, Female gametophyte, Sperm, Egg

DIPLOID: Mature sporophytes, Young sporophyte, Zygote

Where and when does meiosis occur? Plasmogamy? Karyogamy?

- Meiosis: The diploid sporophyte consists of a sporangium-bearing stalk that grows
directly out of the gametophyte. Spore mother cells within the sporangium undergo
meiosis, producing numerous haploid spores.
- Plasmogamy: It happens when two or more cells or protoplasts fuses without fusion
of the nuclei. It occurs in the gametangia.
- Karyogamy: It happens in the archegonia when the egg cell and the sperm cell of a
moss fuses together.
13. In the majority of mosses, which lack hydroids and leptoids, water is conducted along
the EXTERIOR OF THEIR STEMS of the plant by CAPILLARY action.
14. The leafy, green moss plants, being gametophytes, have gametangia, structures that
produce gametes. What is the name of the gemetangium that produces sperm cells?
- Antheridia
The gametangium that produces egg cells?
- Archegonia
Can one single moss gametophyte bear both of these?
- YES
Do some species have plants that produce only sperm cells? Other plant that produce
only egg cells?
- YES
15. The sporophyte of a moss usually has a stalk called a SETA and a simple apical
sporangium called a CAPSULE.
16. Many people often think of mosses as plants adapted to rainy areas, areas that are
usually wet. Are any mosses adapted to deserts?
- YES
Can some mosses lose much of their water the way a seed does before being planted
and still survive?
- YES
17. The liverwort Marchantia is one of the largest and most common. There is a good
chance that you will find it if you search carefully in most places (you may have to search
many places). It is a leafy liverwort or thallose one? Describe its surface texture.
- Marchantia is probably the most familiar thallose liverwort because it grows easily on
moist soil in greenhouses. Its antheridia are hidden within the upper surface, each
surrounded by a rim of sterile cells. Archegoniosphores on the other hand are
located on the underside and they are finger-like segmenting radiating from the stalk.

18. Unlike Marchantia, some liverworts are as simple as a true plant can possibly get.
Describe the body of Sphaerocarpos texanus. If you were shown one of these plants, how
would you be certain that it was not an alga (Hint: It would be almost impossible; there is
only one way, not mentioned in the text. Algae tend to have only one chloroplast per cell;
true plants-including S. texanus- always has many, except on the hornworts)? The point of
this question is to have you think about how little difference there is between some algae
and some true plants.
- Some species are even simpler. Sphaerocarpos Texanus is a small, thin ribbon, a
few cells thick at the center, but the rest of the body is only one cell thick. It has
simple rhizoids on the bottom but no internal air chambers and no scales or other
types of vegetative differentiation. These plants are basically as simple as the sea
lettuce alga, Ulva. This similarity in cell membrane structure accounts for green
algae's ability to survive within soil-based environments. This capability stems from
the proteins manufactured by green algae's DNA genes, which enable cells to draw
soil nutrients inside their membrane walls, according to the Carnegie Institution for
Science. The cells of both life forms are also lined with specialized thylakoid
membranes, which contain light-absorbing chlorophyll materials.
19. What are some of the ways in which liverworts differ from mosses? How do hornworts
differ from both? Do the three have same similar life cycles?
- Liverwort protonemata are never as extensive or ramified or as long lived as those of
mosses. Instead, after only a few cells are produced, an apical cell is established
and growth of the gametophore begins. Hornworts are a group of small,
inconspicuous thalloid plants that grow on moist soil, hidden by grass and other
herbs. Hornworts have a columella as in mosses, but unlike the elaters of liverworts,
those of hornworts are multicellular and do not have spirally thickened walls.
Because they lack vascular tissue to transport water and nutrients, mosses and
liverworts must both remain tiny. However, differences in appearance make it
possible to distinguish between the two. Mosses lack roots, but reddish brown
filaments called rhizoids anchor mosses to the surface on which they grow. Tiny,
pointed leaves develop, each with a midvein that helps move water from one part of
the leaf to another. Leaves grow in a spiral pattern.Liverworts, on the other hand,
have lobed leaves, only one cell thick. Leaves tend to grow in rows, have a
leatherlike appearance and lack the midvein that distinguishes mosses. Liverworts
also lack roots, and the rhizoids that adhere them to surfaces consist of only a single
cell, not a long filament. Liverworts tend to synthesize volatile oils, which gives them
a spicy aroma. All bryophytes reproduce with spores, not seeds. The moss or
liverwort produces sperm and eggs, which when fused, develop into a sporeproducing structure called the sporophyte. The spores released by the sporophyte
have the potential to develop into new moss or liverwort plants. In the case of
mosses, the sporophyte grows as a stalk, quickly breaking free of the plant that
produced it. Spores at the tip of the stalk gradually release in the wind.Liverwort
sporophytes, on the other hand, develop entirely inside the plant until the spores are

ready for release. Rapid growth of the sporophyte pushes it free of the plant and
exposes its spores to the wind. Unlike mosses, the spores of liverworts release
entirely within just a few minutes.
20. What are the horns of hornworts? What do they produce? They have a meristem.
Where is it located?
- 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. The flattened, green plant body of a hornwort is the
gametophyte plant. The sporophyte of a hornwort is unusual in that it grows from a
meristem near its base, instead of from its tip the way other plants do. They produce
spores since they have sporophyte. Thus, sporogenous tissue is formed
continuously.
21. An important consideration in the evolution of any organism is gene flow. What are some
of the mechanisms by which genes move through the habitat in nonvascular plants? In a
dense, cool forest, how strong are wind currents? Could they carry spores very far? What
would you guess might be the maximum distance the sperms can swim? How far can a
raindrop splash a sperm or a spore?
- In all nonvascular plants, sperm must swim to the egg through a film of water. All
plants need to reproduce in order to expand their species, but non-vascular plants do
not produce flowers or seeds. Non-vascular plants can reproduce sexually and
asexually, though asexual reproduction is not a very common method. During
asexual reproduction, plant material gets regenerated when any part of the plant
such as leaves fall to the ground. This results in growth of secondary plants. During
sexual reproduction, the archegonia, present on female gametophytes on the top
leaves of mosses, produce egg cells. The sperm cells are produced by Antheridia,
present on the male gametophytes. The sperm cells require water such as a dew or
raindrop to reach archegonium where they fertilize the egg cells.