Nonvascular plants like bryophytes do not have true roots, stems, or leaves, and do not have tissues to transport water and food. They survive by attaching to surfaces like damp ground or tree trunks using root-like rhizoids that absorb water and nutrients. Liverworts have umbrella-like structures that produce eggs and sperm, mosses have capsules at the tip of stalks that contain spores, and hornworts have thin thorn-like structures. Nonvascular plants are important because they produce oxygen, prevent erosion, retain water in soil, and dried sphagnum is used for packaging plants and as fuel. They cannot grow very large due to lacking a vascular system and requiring water for

1. Nonvascular
Plants

2. NonvascularPlants

3. What are Nonvascular Plants?
Nonvascular Plants (bryophytes) are plants
which do not have tissues to transport water
and food. They don’t have real roots, stems
and leaves.

4. How Dothey Survive?
They are attached to the
places where they live by
means of their root-like
rhizoids.
Rhizoids absorb water and
nutrients; anchors the plant
to a surface instead of true
roots. They grow very close
to damp grounds, stone
walls or tree trunks.

5. How do liverworts, mosses and hornworts differ in appearance?
Liverworts develop “umbrella-like” structures that
produce eggs and sperms.
Mosses have “capsules” which you can see at the
tip of its thin stalks. Capsules contain the spores.
Hornworts are thin “thorn-like” structures.

6. Importance of Nonvascular Plants
• They provide oxygen to many
organisms.
• Their “carpetlike” growth covering
large areas in hilly grounds prevent
erosion and increase the capacity of
soil to hold water.
• Dried Sphagnum or peat moss is
used to wrap plants and breakable
items during transport. Gardeners
use them to retain more water in the
soil for important crops.
• Old, dead sphagnum form thick
deposits called peat, is used as fuel
in some places.

7. Why do you thinknonvascularplantscannotgrow very
large or tall?
Without a vascular system, mosses, and
liverworts cannot grow very large. If you have
seen mosses, you know that they are
actually carpets of individual plants. They are
rarely taller than one inch high. Another
important characteristic of these little guys is that
they require water to reproduce. It's another
characteristic of their low place in plant
evolution. While all plants need water, mosses
and bryophytes need droplets of water to enable
their haploid reproductive cells to combine.

8. PresentedBy:
• Aprille Joyce Castro
• Wednesday Guillermo
• Marjorie Platin