Question

Give the salient feature of Bryophyta with two examples.

Answer 1

Bryophytes are a group of non-vascular land plants consisting of three divisions: liverworts, hornworts and mosses. They are limited in size and like moist habitat and also they will survive in drier environments.

Complete answer:
The term Bryophyta was first suggested by Braun. G.M. Smith. He placed this within the group between algae and pteridophytes. The term bryophyte comes from greek bryon –tree-moss and python means plant.

- Bryophytes can survive on rocks and bare soil. Bryophytes are called amphibians of the Plantae as these plants can board soil and water, they are keen about water for reproduction. They play a crucial role in plant succession, like primary succession.
- They don’t have true roots, stem or leaves. They're useful for economic importance like species of Sphagnum which provide peat that have long been used and they are used as fuel and as a packing, thanks to their capacity to carry water.
- They are photosynthetic but non vascular (no xylem and phloem ) plants. Cuticle is absent and in Liverworts stomata are absent. They grow in the hilly areas mostly in shady and damp or moist places.
- The samples of bryophytes are Funaria, Sphagnum, Marchantia.
- The defining characteristics of bryophytes are that the gametophyte phase dominates their life cycles, and their sporophytes are unbranched. They do not have a real plant tissue containing lignin (although some have specialized tissues for the transport of water).

Note: Bryophyta exist in a very wide range of habitats. They can be found growing in an exceedingly range of temperatures, elevations and moisture. Bryophytes can grow where vascularised plants cannot because they do not depend upon roots for an uptake of nutrients from soil.