Bryophytes are non-vascular plants that were the first plants to move from oceans and ponds to land around 400 million years ago. They developed special features like a cuticle and multicellular structures to survive on land without drying out. Bryophytes include liverworts, mosses and hornworts. Though small, bryophytes played an important role in the early development of land by helping to chemically break down rocks to form soil. Their simple structure made them pioneers in establishing plant life on land.

1. BRYOPHYTES non-vascular plants
by Annie Cloutier copyright 2012
Liverwort, Mosses, Hornworts
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2. Plants moved from oceans and ponds to land
• Algae cells are surrounded by water
• Plants and green algae have pigments and starch
as primary food reserves and cellulose in their
cell walls
• When plant cells divide, they develop
phragmoplasts and cell plates, that no other
organism is know to have
• This suggest that plants and green algae came
from a common ancestor
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3. 400 MYBP land plants first appeared on Earth
To survive on land plants needed to develop special features to
keep them from drying out.
• A fatty cuticle that • Plant zygotes developed
retards water loss into embryo (immature
• The gametangia plantlets) within the
(gamete producing parental tissue that
structures) originally surrounds and
• The sporangia (spore protects the egg
producing structures)
• Became multi-cellular
• Created a sterile cell
jacket
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4. Moss life cycle
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5. Bryophytes of all phyla often have mycorrhizal
fungi associated with their rhizoids
(have no xylem or phloem but absorb water)
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6. Luminous mosses are found near cave
entrances and other dark places
Each cell’s upper surface
is curved and functions as
a tiny magnifying glass,
concentrating dim light on
the chloroplast at the base
of moss.
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7. Bryophytes do not appear to be closely
related to any other living plants
• Scientist theorize that
they evolved separately
from the ancestral green
algae
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8. Mosses can be found all over the Earth
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9. Peat Mosses are Unique !
• Antibiotic and absorbent • Fix and store carbon
properties dioxide from the
atmosphere
• Have a plant history of • Peat bogs inhibit growth
aiding in plant of decomposer, by
succession of different establishing pH acid
stages of communities, • This is why biomass
transforming bogs into (dead leaves etc)
dry land over time accumulate in bogs.
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10. Does not smell and…
• was used during the • Native Americans
war as bandages to discovered it was
absorb and stop good to use in
bleeding, & has
early diapers !
antibacterial
properties to stop
infections No diaper rash
on me
http://www.ehow.co.uk/facts_7890246_peat-
moss-usage.html
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11. Sphagnum moss ~ peat moss
• Female gametophyte
• Contains egg
• Venter
• Neck canal paraphysis
• These are all part of the
archigonium ( A )
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12. Tip of male gametophyte
• Paraphysis
• Anteridium ( A )
• Sperm
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13. Life Cycle of Moss
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14. Where can you see them on Cape Cod ?
• Atlantic White Cedar Swamp Reserve at Marconi
Point, Wellfleet, MA
http://www.nps.gov/caco/planyourvisit/marconi-beach.htm
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15. White Cedar Swamps are rare and
beautiful to visit
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16. Hornwort is a Bryophytes
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17. Liverwort is a bryophyte
• http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/Biolog
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18. Little and low to the ground, but they changed the
Earth’s landscape and chemically helped make
soil from solid rocks.
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19. In 1904 Ernst Haeckel created this beautiful art of bryophytes
diversity and life cycle in his series called Kunstforen der Natur
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20. The end is just a beginning for another
species in the plant kingdom
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