General Characters
& Classification of
Bryophytes
General Characters
❖ The word br yophyte is the collective
ter m for mosses, hornworts and liverworts
❖ Bryology is the study of bryophytes.
❖ Includes the simplest and most
primitive land plants.
❖ Plants lack true vascular system,
hence called non-vascular plants.
❖ Terrestrial but need water to complete life-
cycle, hence called amphibians of plant
kingdom.
❖ Mostly, grow on shady damp and moist
places.
General Characters
Gametophytic Plant Body
❖Dominant plant body is gametophytic (n).
❖Thalloid plant body i.e. not differentiated
into true roots, stem and leaves. Or
leafy shoots are present.
❖Plants are green and
possess chloroplasts.
❖Roots are absent, replaced by
unicellular or multicellular rhizoids.
❖Vascular tissue completely absent.
Like the rest of land Plants, bryophytes
produce an embryo- embryophytes
have multicellular sex organs, i.e. the
gametes are enclosed by a sterile jacket of
cells
retain the zygote within the female sex
organ and allow it to develop into an
embryo there
have cutin (a cuticle) on the plant and
spores
have no lignin usually
are small, low-lying, (generally) moisture-
loving plants
Structure: Gametophyte
Gametophore – Moss
leafy structure or gametophore
thick,
conspicuous part
Leafy Liverwort
Thallose liverwort
General Characters
Reproduction
❖ Always oogamous
❖ Male gamete is small and motile,
female gamete is large and non-motile.
❖ Male reproductive organs are
antheridia and female are archegonia.
❖ Both are multicellular and jacketed.
❖ Antheridia are differentiated into stalk, and
body.
❖ Archegonia are stalked and
differentiated into venter and neck.
Antheridium
Archegonium
General Characters
Sporophyte
❖ Represents diploid zygote, the first cell
of sporophytic generation.
❖ Totally dependant on gametophyte.
❖ Inmost, differentiated into foot, seta
and capsule
❖ The sporophyte produce haploid spores.
❖ The spores fall on suitable substratum &
germinate to produce gametophytic plant
body.
Sporophyte
Moss
Liverwort Hornwort
General Characters
Young gametophyte
❖The haploid spores represent first
cells of gametophyte.
❖Spore on suitable medium and
fall
germinate to produce gametophytic
plant body.
General Characters
Life cycle : 2
phases
❖The gametophytic generation
haploid
(The gametophyte).
❖The diploid sporophytic generation (The
sporophyte).
General Characters
Alternation of
generation
Classification of Bryophytes
* Division HEPATICOPSIDA - the Liverworts
* Division ANTHOCEROTOPSIDA - the
Hornworts
* Division BRYOPSIDA - the Mosses
Three groups
Mosse Hornwort
s s
Leafy
liverwort
Classification of Bryophytes
1. Hepaticopsida – the liverworts
The Four Classes of Hepaticopsida
* Calobryales
* Jungermanniales
* Marchantiales
*
Metzgeriales
Classification of Bryophytes
1. Hepaticopsida – the liverworts
•So-called because the thallus of many liverworts
resembles the lobes of a liver; ending “wort”
means “herb”.
•Liverworts lack conducting elements (cuticle &
stomata)
•The gametophyte can be “thallose” or
“leafy” (Jungermanniales)
•The thallus usually has some internal differentiation in
the form of photosynthetic cells, air chambers and
storage tissues
•The sporophyte is compact, without or a short seta
•The capsule (sporangium) has a single-layered wall
Classification of Bryophytes
2. Anthocerotopsida – the hornworts
•So-called because many hornworts have elongated horn-
like structure, which is the sporophyte.
•The gametophyte may be as rosette or ribbon-like thallus
Many hornworts develop internal mucilage-filled cavities
invaded by photosynthetic cyanobacteria, especially
species of Nostoc .
•Such colonies of bacteria growing inside the thallus give
the hornwort a distinctive blue-green color.
•The horn-shaped sporophyte grows from an
archegonium embedded deep in the gametophyte.
Classification of Bryophytes
2. Anthocerotopsida – the hornworts
• In mature sporophyte, a multicellular outer
layer, a central rod-like columella running up
the center, and a layer of tissue in between
that produces spores and pseudo-elaters are
present.
• The pseudo-elaters are multi-cellular, unlike
the elaters of liverworts. They have helical
thickenings that change shape in response to
drying out; they twist and thereby help to
disperse the spores.
Classification of Bryophytes
3. Bryopsida– the mosses
• It is the largest class of mosses, containing
95% of all moss species.
• The gametophyte is differentiated into
prostrate protonema and erect radial leafy
shoot, persistant leaves spirally arranged
on stem, rhizoid with muticellualr oblique
septa.
• Sporogonium is differentiated into foot,
seta and capsule.
Classification of Bryophytes
3. Bryopsida– the mosses
• The most important characteristic of the
Bryopsida is the architecture of the ring of
teeth (peristome) surrounding the mouth
of the sporophyte capsule.
• Bryopsida are the only mosses that have an
arthrodontous peristome, i.e., a peristome
in which the teeth are structured by
articulated cell wall remnants.
Classification of Bryophytes
2. Bryopsida – the
mosses
* Sphanidae
* Andreaeidae
* Bryidae
