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Thallus
This article is about the undifferentiated tissue. For other uses, see Thallus (disambiguation).

Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek

(thallos), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig," is the
undifferentiated vegetative tissue of some organisms in
diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts,
lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms
were previously known as the thallophytes, a
polyphyletic group of distantly related organisms. An
organism or structure resembling a thallus is called
thalloid, thallodal, thalliform, thalline, or thallose.
Thallus of Sargassum weeds

A thallus usually names the entire body of a multicellular

non-moving organism in which there is no organization of the tissues into organs.[1] Even though thalli
do not have organized and distinct parts (leaves, roots, and stems) as do the vascular plants, they may
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have analogous structures that resemble their vascular "equivalents". The analogous structures have
similar function or macroscopic structure, but different microscopic structure; for example, no thallus
has vascular tissue. In exceptional cases such as the Lemnoideae, where the structure of a vascular
plant is in fact thallus-like, it is referred to as having a thalloid structure, or sometimes as a thalloid.
Although a thallus is largely undifferentiated in terms of its anatomy, there can be visible differences and
functional differences. A kelp, for example, may have its thallus divided into three regions. The parts of
a kelp thallus include the holdfast (anchor), stipe (supports the blades) and the blades (for
photosynthesis).
The thallus of a fungus is usually called a mycelium. The term thallus is also commonly used to refer to
the vegetative body of a lichen. In seaweed, thallus is sometimes also called 'frond'.
The gametophyte of some non-thallophyte plants -- clubmosses, horsetails, and ferns is termed
"prothallus".

References
1. ^ Haupt, Arthur W. (1953). Plant Morphology. New York: McGraw-Hill Book company. p. 7.
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