Bryophytes


 * Bryophyte s **

Bryophytes are non vascualr plants including mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. Bryophytes depened on water for thier reproduction. they lack vascualr tissure and draw up water only by osmosis. This severly limits their primary growth.

Types of Bryophytes > Mosses > Liverworts > Hornworts Life Cycle > Life Cycle of a Moss
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 * Bryophytes
 * Bryophytes
 * Rhizoids
 * Gemmae
 * Reproduction ||

Types of Bryophytes  Mosses Moss is the most commoon member of the phylum Bryophyta. Mosses grow best in places that have lots of water, i.e. rain forests, near streams, and in swamps and bogs. They are very well adpated to environments with poor nutrients and abundant water supplies. Mosses can handle very extreme tempurature conditions and are the most common type of plant in polar reigons. Mosses have many different appearences but one of the common structures is a long stalk that each contain a capsule. This is the sporophyte stage.

Liverworts Belonging to the genus Hepaticophyta, the liverwort looks like a cluster of leaves attached to the ground. They get thier name from the shape of these leaves, resembling a liver. The liverwort gemetophytes form broad thin structures that draw up water from the soil. When the plant amtures it creates structuers that look liek little green umbrella shooting up from the plant. These are where the sperm and egg are produced. Some liverworts can reproduce asexually. This asexual reproduction is carried out in ** Gemmae. ** Gemmae are small ulticellular reproductive structures. In some liver warts the gemmae look like cups. When washed out of the gemmae cups hte gemmae can divide and create a new plant.

 Hornworts Hornworts are classified as memebrs of the Anthocerophtya phylum. Hornworts are very simliar to liverworts. They are both found year round and on the ground in damp palces. However the horworts sporophytes look like a horn.