Moist-loving plants

Pioneer species
BOTANY 201 Laboratory
Department of Biological Sciences
College of Science
University of Santo Tomas

Small plants that has chlorophyll a & b, cell walls made
up of cellulose, motile sperms & starch (storage)

Lack well-developed vascular tissues → absorb water
by capillarity

Lack true roots, stems & leaves

Gametophyte – dominant; perennial

Sporophyte – short-lived; unbranched; produces
sporangium

Heteromorphic Alternation of Generation

Gametophyte generation:

dominant stage

Free-living & photosynthetic

Sporophyte generation:

short-lived

attached to and dependent on the gametophyte for
nourishment → parasitic to the gametophyte
Character Thallophyte Brophyte Primitive Features Advanced Features
Plant Body •single cells or filament of •blocks or sheets of cells • Usually have no lignin • Have multicellular sex organs (i.e.:
cells forming a parenchymatous • Small, low-lying, and generally gametes are enclosed by sterile
tissue moisture loving plants jacket cells)
Gametangia •unicellular and lacks a •multicellular and have a • No roots, only filamentous • Are parenchymatous, not
protective jacket of sterile protective jacket of sterile cells rhizoids filamentous
cells • Retain the zygote within the
female sex organ & allow it to
develop into an embryo there
• Have cutin on the plant and
spores

Hepatics or liverworts

rhizoids are always unicellular

Thallus are dichotomously
branched and exhibits
dorsiventrality:
 upper side – photosynthetic
(chlorenchymatous cells & air
chambers)
 lower side – for storage & non-
photosynthetic (scales & rhizoids)

Gametophytes are lobed &
bilaterally symmetrical
1. Leafy
2. Thallose

Unstalked sporangia
LIVERWORTS HORNWORTS MOSSES

Reproduce asexually

Thallose liverwort
Male Female

Gametophyte:
 Flat, ribbon-like
 Perennial; dichotomously
branched
 Unisexual

Gametophores:
 Archegoniophore
 Antheridiophore
Gemma – multicellular asexual reproductive units

Hornworts – long horn-shaped sporophytes

have the simplest gametophytes of the Bryophyta

small, green thallus plants with little differentiation of
vegetative tissues.

antheridia are located in roofed chambers in the upper
portion of the thallus.

archegonia are embedded within the thallus.

sporophyte is different from that of the Hepaticae.

foot embedded in the thallus serves an absorbing
organ. The sporangium is an upright elongated
structure.

Mosses have specialized cells that conduct water and others
that conduct photosynthate.

Gametophytic generation – dominant; has two growth
stages:
 creeping filamentous stage (the protonema) from which is
developed,
 The moss plant with an upright or horizontal stem bearing small
spirally arranged green leaves.

Sporophyte – dependent on the gametophyte for survival.

have disc shaped chloroplasts, lack pyrenoids and have
stomata

Rhizoids are found at the base of the stem
Moss Sporophyte

Gametangia occur at the tips of either the main or
lateral branches
Moss Gametophyte