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Gametophytes produce haploid sperm and eggs which fuse to form diploid zygotes that grow into sporophytes. Sporophytes produce haploid spores by meiosis , that grow into gametophytes. Bryophytes are gametophyte dominant, [ 12 ] meaning that the more prominent, longer-lived plant is the haploid gametophyte.
In bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts), the gametophyte is the most visible stage of the life cycle. The bryophyte gametophyte is longer lived, nutritionally independent, and the sporophytes are attached to the gametophytes and dependent on them. [5] When a moss spore germinates it grows to produce a filament of cells (called the ...
A cluster of antheridia is called an androecium while a cluster of archegonia is called a gynoecium. (Note these terms have a different meaning when used to refer to flower structures.) Bryophytes have the most elaborate gametophytes of all living land plants, and thus have a wide variety of gametangium positions and developmental patterns.
In ferns and seed plants (including cycads, conifers, flowering plants, etc.) the sporophyte is the dominant generation; the obvious visible plant, whether a small herb or a large tree, is the sporophyte, and the gametophyte is very small. In bryophytes and ferns, the gametophytes are independent, free-living plants, while in seed plants, each ...
The ancestral sexual system in bryophytes is unknown but it has been suggested monoicy and dioicy evolved several times. [11] It has also been suggested that dioicy is a plesiomorphic character for bryophytes. [4]: 71 In order for dioicy to evolve from monoicy it needs two mutations, a male sterility mutation and a female sterility mutation. [11]
Most bryophytes, such as these mosses, produce stalked sporophytes from which their spores are released. The non-vascular land plants, namely the mosses (Bryophyta), hornworts (Anthocerotophyta), and liverworts (Marchantiophyta), are relatively small plants, often confined to environments that are humid or at least seasonally moist.
Later on, the bryophytes were considered paraphyletic, and hence the hornworts were given their own division, Anthocerotophyta (sometimes misspelled Anthocerophyta). However, the most recent phylogenetic evidence leans strongly towards bryophyte monophyly, [ 28 ] and it has been proposed that hornworts are de-ranked to the original class ...
Diagram of archegonium anatomy. An archegonium (pl.: archegonia), from the Ancient Greek ἀρχή ("beginning") and γόνος ("offspring"), is a multicellular structure or organ of the gametophyte phase of certain plants, producing and containing the ovum or female gamete.