The term bryophyte is used to describe a phylum of plants that are composed of over 25,000 species throughout the world. Bryophytes are made up of three major groups of plants: the mosses, liverworts, and hornworts, all of which are located throughout the world, even in extreme environments ( Raven 1999). .
Bryophytes are usually small in size, and most of the members of the phylum are dependant on water or moist surroundings to survive(Raven 1999). The reason that they rely so heavily on moisture in their environments is because they are lacking a vascular system. Bryophytes are some of the oldest and most primitive plants still extant on earth, and since they are unable to utilize xylem and phloem like vascular plants to transport water, food, and minerals throughout the plant body, they must remain small and live in a very moist environment ( Shaw et al 2003). .
A very important distinction between bryophytes and other plants, other than the fact that they have no vascular systems, is that all bryophytes reproduce by the exchange of spores rather than producing flowers or seeds (Steel et al 2004).
In fact, much scientific evidence suggests that bryophytes are among the very first examples of modern plant life. Bryophytes appear to be in a transitional stage of the evolutionary chain as we understand it. They share many common features of aquatic algae and other simple plant-like water organisms, as well as precursors to the more evolved land plants such as the gymnosperms and angiosperms. Therefore, they are either a common ancestor of modern land dwelling plants- one that probably split off and evolved separately throughout the millennia (Randerson 2003). In 2003, a discovery in 450 million year old rocks seems to have answered the question. Fossilized fragments of plant matter, less than half a millimeter wide, were discovered(Randerson 2003). This predates earlier predictions of the beginning of plant life by 25 million years.
Nonvascular plants, the bryophytes, don't have roots, stems, or leaves. ... Instead of growing from seeds, bryophytes grow from spores. ... In bryophytes, the most visible plant is the green, leaflike gametophyte. ... Remember that bryophytes are only a few cells thick. ... The principal plants in bogs are seedless plants such as bryophytes and ferns. ...
For the purpose of this lab the operational taxonomic units used were Oscillatoria, Chlamdomonas, Spirogyra, Pterophyta, Anthophyta, Bryophytes, Coniferophyta, Euglena, Charophyceae, and Paramecium (See the attached spreadsheet for organisms and attributes). ... This organism can only move to evolve and become one of the first land "plants" known as moss, bryophytes. ... Finally after the bryophytes the development of ferns and conifers becomes evident. The ferns reproduce using spores and eventually conifers use cones. ...
Important Facts the smallest unit of life is the cell instructions for development are contained in DNA collectively, all of the chemical processes in a cell are called metabolism producers often obtain energy from the sun homeostasis refers to the ability to maintain a constant internal environment cells in domains archaea and eubacteria lack nucleii plants are multicellular producers an educated guess might be called a hypothesis science is based on evidence philosophy is not a step in the scientific method an atom is the smallest unit of substance that retains the properties of the subst...
Evolution is in progress. 3.As we survey the living members of the plant kingdom there is a tendency to think in terms of primitive and advanced groups and that one group represents the ancestor of another: a moss evolved into a fern which evolved into a conifer and so on until we reach the flowering plants. ... Mosses are characterized as bryophytes. ...