Tag: biology

In mosses, the spore germinates to form the protonema, which then develops buds that grow into the leafy gametophyte (the gamete-bearing plant).

Funaria possesses a juvenile filamentous autotrophic stage during life cycle, called as protonema. Moss plant (Funaria) develops on protonema as buds, while Marchantia is a liverwort in which distinct protonemal stage is absent.

Sphagnum that generally grows in bogs can absorb large amounts of water i.e., upto 18 times its weight. Therefore, it is extensively used by gardeners to keep seedlings and cut plant parts moist during transportation and propagation. In older times it was also used in place of absorbent cotton.

The gametophytic plant body of mosses are differentiated into prostate, branched filamentous, thalloid protonema and leafy erect gametophore.
Rhizoids are multicellular branched with oblique septa.
Sex organs develop from superficial cells at the apex of leafy gametophyte.
Stomata and chlorophyll are present in gametphyte for gaseous exchange, e.g., Funaria.

Mosses show an advance on some liverworts in that the plant body is differentiated into simple stems and leaves, though it has no roots, rhizoids still being present, but these are multicellular and have oblique septa.
Liverworts and hornworts have dorsiventrally flattened lobed plant body, with unicellular rhizoids.

• A protonema is a thread-like chain of cells that forms the earliest stage (the haploid phase) of a bryophyte (e.g., Funaria) life cycle. When a moss first grows from the spore, it grows as a protonema which develops into a leafy gametophore. 
• Moss spores germinate to form an alga-like filamentous structure called the protonema. It represents juvenile gametophyte. While the protonema is growing by apical cell division, at some stage, under the influence of the phytohormone cytokinin, buds are induced which grow by three-faced apical cells. 
• These give rise to gametophores, stems and leaf-like structures (bryophytes do not have true leaves (megaphyll). These gametophores are the adult form of the gametophyte. 
• Protonema are characteristic of all mosses and some liverworts but is absent from hornworts. The protonema is also the photosynthetic part of a germinating fern spore.

Liverworts are small green flowerless plants with lobed leaves. These lack true roots. They reproduce by means of small cup-shaped structures called the gemmea and by fragmentation of thalli.

Funaria (bryophyte), Dryopteris (pteridophyte), and Ginkgo (gymnosperm) all produce archegonia as their female reproductive organ. They differ significantly in vascular tissue and the independence of their sporophyte/gametophyte generations.

Funaria is an acrocarpous moss, meaning the sporophyte develops at the apex of the main gametophyte shoot. This is a characteristic feature of the genus.

androcyte mother cells are formed from the division and re-division of the primary androgonial cell. Each androcyte mother cell divides to form two andro­cytes. The androcytes transform into biflagellate antherozoids or sperms.