Question

Are bryophytes vascular?

Answer 1

Bryophytes are an informal group consisting of three divisions of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes) liverworms, hornworms and mosses. They are typically limited in size and prefer moist habitats, although they can survive in drier environments. The bryophytes consist of about 20,000 species of plants.

Complete answer:
The word bryophyte is a collective term for mosses, corn worms, and liverworms. Bryology is the study of bryophytes. While there are marked differences between these three groups of organisms, they are closely related enough to warrant a single term that includes all three. So the moss is a bryophyte, the liver is a bryophyte, and the hornwort is a bryophyte.

These are all plants, scientifically classified within the Kingdom of Plants. They are spore-producing plants rather than seed-producing plants, and they are all without flowers. Like any living organisms, bryophytes are hierarchically classified. Related species are grouped into genera, associated genera are grouped into families, and so on.

In bryophytes, sporophytes do not have a free living existence. They are directly produced from the fertilized egg in archegonia and are therefore parasitic to gametophyte for nutrition. The gametophytes in these plants are always haploid.

In many bryophytes, the sporophyte is almost parasitic to its haploid gametophyte parent, although it may be green for part of its life. In mosses, the sporangium takes the form of a capsule, raised high above the green gametophyte by a stalk.

The process by which spores are produced is called generational alternation. Bryophytes do not have a true vascular system and are unable to remove water and nutrients from the ground at any significant distance. The lack of this specialized system distinguishes bryophytes from ferns and flowering plants.

Thus, bryophytes are not vascular.

Note: Bryophytes vary in size from plants that are only slightly over a millimeter high to trailing species that grow well over a meter in length. A common misconception is that you need to be in a damp, shaded streamside to find bryophytes – preferably not in the summer. In fact, bryophytes can be found in a wide variety throughout the year in areas ranging from arid to rainforest, and in sea-level to alpine.