Kingdom Plantae (embryophytes)
Characteristics shared by all members of Plantae have:
Kinds of embryophytes
- Bryophytes (nonvascular plants)
- Hepatophyta -- liverworts or "hepatics"
- Anthocerophyta -- hornworts
- Bryophyta -- mosses
- Tracheophytes (vascular plants)
- ferns
- conifers
- flowering plants, etc.
The move to land
Changes in life cycle
diplohaplontic and oogamous
sex and dispersal
- gametes produced in a gametangium surrounded by sterile cells
- sperm produced in an antheridium
- eggs produced in an archegonium
- spores produced in a sporangium surrounded by sterile cells
- sporophyte embryo develops inside archegonium of the gametophyte
Water issues:
cuticle
stomata
fungal mutualists
A note on the various uses of cell walls in freshwater and terrestrial environments...
Hepatophyta
introduction
gametophyte
leafy
thalloid
sporophyte
morphology
spore dispersal via elaters
asexual reproduction via gemmae
ecology
Anthocerophyta
introduction
gametophyte
morphology
sporophyte
morphology and growth
spore dispersal via pseudoelaters
Bryophyta
introduction
gametophyte
general morphology
leaves unlobed, often with central midribs
sporophyte
general morphology
diversity
Andreaeidae -- "granite mosses"
ecology
sporangium morphology
Sphagnidae -- "peat mosses"
gametophyte
sporophyte
ecology -- peat and bogs
economic uses -- peat moss
Bryidae -- "true mosses"
gametophyte
"cushiony" vs. "feathery"
protonemata with bulbils
gametangia associated with paraphyses
sporophyte
morphology of capsule
peristome
leptoids and hydroids -- primitive conducting cells
click here to go to Bryophyte vocabulary
on to the next topic -- seedless vascular plants!
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