Bryophytes: The Plant Kingdom’s Amphibians 🐸

Bryophytes include mosses and liverworts, commonly found in moist, shaded hillside areas. They’re called “plant amphibians” because they live in soil but need water for sexual reproduction.

Key Features

  • 🌱 Plant body: More complex than algae, but lacks true roots, stems, or leaves
  • 🧬 Dominant stage: Haploid gametophyte (main plant body)
  • 🔬 Attachments: Hold ground via root-like rhizoids (unicellular/multicellular)

Reproduction Cycle 🔄

  1. Sex organs:
    • ♂️ Male: Antheridium (makes swimming antherozoids)
    • ♀️ Female: Flask-shaped archegonium (makes one egg)
  2. Fertilization: Antherozoids swim to archegonium → fuse with egg → form zygote
  3. Sporophyte: Zygote grows into dependent sporophyte (attached to gametophyte)
  4. Spore formation: Sporophyte cells undergo meiosis → produce haploid spores
  5. New plants: Spores germinate → form new gametophytes

Ecological Superpowers 🌍

  • 🪨 Rock colonizers: First plants to grow on bare rocks (with lichens)
  • 🌧️ Soil protectors: Dense mats reduce rain impact & prevent erosion
  • 🔥 Peat fuel: Sphagnum moss provides peat (used as fuel/packing material)

Two Types of Bryophytes

LiverwortsMosses
  • Example: Marchantia
  • Habitat: Stream banks, damp soil, tree bark
  • Body: Flattened thallus OR leafy stems
  • ✨ Asexual reproduction via:
    • Fragmentation
    • Gemmae cups (contain green buds)
  • Examples: Funaria, Polytrichum, Sphagnum
  • Life cycle stages:
    1. Protonema (creeping green filaments)
    2. Leafy stage (upright with spiral leaves)
  • Reproduction: Fragmentation + spores
  • Complex spore dispersal mechanism

NEET Must-Knows! 🚨

  1. “Plant amphibians” = Bryophytes (depend on water for sexual reproduction)
  2. Dominant phase = Gametophyte (haploid), sporophyte is parasite on it
  3. Sphagnum moss → forms peat (fuel/water-holding material)
  4. Asexual reproduction in liverworts = Gemmae cups
  5. Moss life cycle: Spore → Protonema → Leafy stage
💡 Fun Fact: Mosses act like sponges! Their water-holding capacity helps create peat bogs – nature’s ancient storage system.