Bryophytes

Plants are divided into two large groups

> Bryophytes - lack vascular tissue

> Tracheophytes - have vascular tissue
> Bryophytes not closely related

Phylum Bryophyta - mosses

Phylum Hepaticophyta - liverworts

Phylum Anthocerophyta - hornworts

Bryophytes share several primitive traits

> Rely primarily on diffusion

> Limited to moist environments
> Lack a true root-shoot system
> Sporophytes are not free living

Bryophytes rely on diffusion to take in water and to exchange gases

Bryophytes are usually small - inconspicuous

Advantage of being small - dont have to invest in support structures and vascular tissues

Bryophytes have a central strand of primitive vascular tissue

Not true vascular tissue, much simpler than that of higher plants

Bryophytes are limited to moist environments - no mosses in the desert

Bryophytes need water to reproduce - sperm must swim to the egg

Bryophytes lack a true root-shoot system - no true roots, stems, leaves

Have more primitive tissues that function like leaves, roots

Tiny leaves are scale like sheets only one cell thick

Roots are tiny rhizoids - a few epidermal cells that anchor the plant to the soil

The sporophytes of bryophytes are not free living organisms

The leafy green plant we think of as moss is the gametophyte generation

The sporophyte generation grows out of the tissues of the gametophyte, and depends on
its parent for nutrition

Phylum Bryophyta Mosses

16,000 species, from Greek bryon = moss - Mnium, Sphagnum

Two growth types

> Cushiony moss - erect stalks

> Feathery moss - flattened mats, low-lying

Moss plants are male or female (dioecious)

Male plants have antheridia at the top

Female plants have archegonia at the top

Gametophytes are haploid, so can make gametes by mitosis

Antheridia produce sperm

Archegonia produce eggs

Sperm swims through thin film of water from the antheridium to the archegonium

Sperm drawn to the egg by chemical attractant

Sperm swims down the neck of the archegonium

Sperm fuses with egg, forms 2n zygote

The male and female plant share a cigarette, discuss old times

Diploid zygote develops into the adult sporophyte, a small green stalk growing out of the
top of the female plant

Stalk can photosynthesize, but soon turns brown, lives off the parent plant (sound
familiar??)

Sporophyte consists of a stalk with a small capsule on the top

Cells in capsule undergo meiosis, form haploid spores

Capsule ripens, the lid or operculum opens up, releases the spores

Spores germinate into tiny green threads called protonema (pl. = protonemata)

Looks like tiny green algae.hmmmm

Buds on protonema develop into adult gametophytes

Mosses can also reproduce asexually by fragmentation

Mosses can also grow little vegetative buds called gemmae, that break off and grow into
a new plant

Mosses - Ecological Importance

Pioneer species on bare soil

Retains moisture and nutrients in ecosystems

Seed bed for higher plants

Most abundant plant in polar ecosystems

Peat bogs cover 1% of the Earths land surface, area = half the United States !!

Peat bogs are very acidic, pH = 4 or lower, most acidic natural environment

Mosses - Economic Importance

Sphagnum moss is commercially important

> Compressed into peat, used for fuel

> Cotton absorbs 4-6 times its weight in water, but Sphagnum absorbs > 20 times its
weight!!

used for diapers

enriching garden soil
dressing wounds in war

Phylum Hepaticophyta Liverworts

9,000 species, Marchantia, Porella

Simplest bodies of any green plant, looks like a flat scaly leaf with prominent lobes

Lobes suggested the shape of a liver, hence hepato - phyta = Greek for liver plant, liver
- wort from Anglo Saxon wyrt = herb

During the Middle Ages, because of its resemblance to the human liver, liverworts were
used to treat liver diseases

Doctrine of Signatures claimed that the creator has intentionally created plants to look
like the parts of the body they could be used to cure!

Mandrake root was a heal-all because it looked like an entire human body

Can you guess what walnuts were used for?

Walnuts were used to treat brain disease!!

Liverworts store food as oil instead of starch, and lack stomata

Life cycle similar to mosses - gametophyte is dominant stage (the leafy green plant)

Archegonia hang from the underside of tiny umbrellas

Sperm swims to the egg, zygote develops into tiny diploid sporophyte that remains
attached to the umbrella

Haploid spores are surrounded by elaters, long, twisted, moist cells

When the elaters dry out, they twist and jerk around, scatter the spores

Asexual reproduction by gemmae cups, little cups with tiny liverwort inside, dispersed by
drop of water

Phylum Anthocerophyta Hornworts

100 species - Anthoceros

Gametophytes look like liverworts, but send up a tiny moss-like sporophyte

More closely related to mosses (stomata)

Symbiotic with cyanobacteria Nostoc and Anabaena, which fix nitrogen for the hornwort