SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM BRYOPHYTA
| EUKARYA> ARCHAEPLASTIDA> VIRIDIPLANTAE>STREPTOBIONTA> EMBRYOPHYTA> BRYOPHYTA |
BRYOPHYTA LINKS
| The following description comes from Bold et al. (1987) and Schofield (1985). |
I. SYNONYMS: mosses, true mosses.
II. NUMBER: > 15,000 species.
III. PHYLUM CHARACTERISTICS
Schofield (1985) has defined the states of 13 characters as primitive and derived.
- A. Gametophyte
- Form: Leafy; “leaves” usually arranged radially on a stem-like structure.
- Rhizoids: Rhizoids (text with tooltip) Thread-like growths, simple or branched, which serve for absorption and anchorage. complex, multicellular and branched; with oblique cross walls.
- Stomata: Present on capsule; each with two guard cells.
- Chloroplasts: Many small chloroplasts present in cells of the gametophyte and some cells of the sporophyte.
- Gametangia: Usually clustered at the tips of the main or secondary axes and surrounded by leaves (a perianth).
- Protonemata: Present; thallose or highly branched filament.
- B. Sporophyte
- Form: With foot (text with tooltip) A foot is the muscular locomotory organ whose structure defines, in part, the molluscan classes. , seta (text with tooltip) The stalk of the sporophyte capsule. and complex capsule (text with tooltip) The sporangium of the sporophyte; elevated by the seta. , usually with a columella (text with tooltip) A small column of tissue running up through the center of the capsule. , chloroplasts and stomates (text with tooltip) Pores in the leaf epidermis surrounded by a pair of guard cells. The gas exchange of leaves is controlled by the dimension of the pores. .
- Seta: Present; often very long.
- Capsule: Contains much sterile tissue; columella present; with a peristomal apparatus (text with tooltip) The mouth of the capsule. .
- Elaters: Absent.
- Calyptra (text with tooltip) Small sheath of cells, derived from the archegonium, which covers the top of the capsule. : Present.
- Peristome: Present and variable.
- Life history of a common moss.
- C. Ecology: These plants are found throughout the world from the tropics to arctic regions. Terrestrial, epiphytic and aquatic. No marine species.
| LITERATURE CITED Bold, H. C., C. J. Alexopoulos, and T. Delevoryas. 1987. Morphology of Plants and Fungi. 5th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. New York. Buck, W.R. and B. Goffinet. 2000. Morphology and classification of mosses. In: J. Shaw and DB. Goffinet, eds. The Biology of Bryophytes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. pp. 71-123. Cox, C. J., B. Goffinet, A. J. Shaw, and S. B. Boles. 2004. Phylogenetic relationships among the mosses based on heterogeneous Baysian analysis of multiple genes from multiple genomic compartments. Systematic Botany. 29(2):234-250. Goffinet, B., A. J. Shaw, and C. J. Cox. 2004a. Phylogenetic inferences in the dung-moss family Splachnaceae from analyses of cpDNA sequence data and implications for the evolution of entomophily. American Journal of Botany. 91(5):748-759. Newton, A. E., C. J. Cos, J. G. Duckett, B. Goffinet, T. A. J. Hedderson, B. D. Mishler. 2000. Evolution of the major moss lineages: phylogenetic analyses based on multiple gene sequences and morphology. The Bryologist. 103(2): 187-211. Schofield, W. B. 1985. Introduction to Bryology. Macmillan Publishing Co. New York. Shaw, J. and K. Renzaglia. 2004. Phylogeny and diversification of bryophytes. American Journal of Botany. 91(10): 1557-1581. Tsubota H., T. Arikawa, H. Akiyama, E. De Luna, D. Gonzalez, M. Higuchi, and H. Deguchi. 2002. Molecular phylogeny of hypnobryalian mosses as inferred from a large-scale dataset of chloroplast rbcL, with special reference to the Hypnaceae and possibly related families. Hikobia 13: 645-665. Tudge, C. 2000. The Variety of Life, A Survey and a Celebration of all the Creatures That Have Ever Lived. Oxford University Press. New York. |
| By Jack R. Holt. Last revised: 03/21/2013 |
