NON-VASCULAR PLANTS
• DIVISION BRYOPHYTA (mosses)
• DIVISION HEPATICOPHYTA (liverworts)
• DIVISION ANTHOCEROPHYTA
(hornworts)
Introduction
• The material nurses used was a species of
Sphagnum moss (bog or peat moss), which
has since been experimentally demonstrated
to have antiseptic properties. This moss has
specialized water absorbing ‘’leaves” and has
been used as a packing material in the past.
• It is still widely used as a soil conditioner.
• The ‘’bandage’’ Sphagnum is one of about
23,000 species of bryophytes that include
mosses, liverworts, and hornworts, many of
which frequently makes a soft and cool-
looking green covering on damp banks, trees,
and logs that are shaded for at least a part of
the day.
• In contrast, some bryophytes can withstand
long periods of desiccation and are also found
on bare rocks in the scorching, while others
occur on frozen alpine slopes.
• The habitats of bryophytes range in elevation
from sea level near ocean beaches up to 5,500
or more meters (18,000 or more feet) in
mountains.
• Few species are found only on the antlers and
bones of dead reindeer.
• Others are confined to the dung of
herbivorous animals, while others still grow
only on the dung of carnivores.
• A few tropical bryophytes thrive only on large
insect wing covers.
The pygmy mosses, which appear annually on
bare soil after rains, are only 1 to 2 millimeters
(0.04 to 0.08 inch) tall and can complete their
whole life cycle in a few weeks.
Bryophytes of all phyla often have mycorrhizal
fungi associated with their rhizoids. In some
instances the fungi apparently are at least
partially parasitic
• One species of completely colorless
liverworts that live underneath mosses is
totally dependent nutritionally on its fungal
associate.
• The gametophytes of more advance plants
are completely dependent on their
sporophytes for their nutrition. The
widespread peat mosses are ecologically
very important in bogs and in the
transformation of bogs to dry land.
Peat mosses sometimes form floating mats over
water and keep conditions acid enough to inhibit
the growth of bacteria and fungi
The luminous mosses are found in caves near the
entrance and in other dark damp place. They are
called luminous because they glow an eerie
golden-green in reflected light. The upper
surfaces of their cells are slightly curved, each cell
functions as a magnifying glass, concentrating
light on the chlorophasts.
None of the bryophytes have true xylem and
phloem, and be able to sexually reproduce, all
bryophytes must have external water, usually in
the form of dew in rain.
Many mosses do have special water-conducting
cells called hydroids in the centers of their stems
and a few have food conducting cells called
leptoids surrounding the hydroids. Neither type
of cells, however, conducting as efficiently as
vessel elements or tracheids of xylem and sieve
tube members of phloem and most water is
absorbed directly through the surface.
• The absence of xylem and phloem makes most
bryophytes soft and pliable and it is not
surprising therefore, that birds often use them
to line their nests.
ALTERNATION OF GENERATION
• More conspicuous in bryophytes and ferns
than in most other organisms.
• In mosses, the ‘’leafy’’ plant is a major part of
the gametophyte generation that produces
the gametes.
• The sporophyte generation which grows from
a ‘’leafy’’ gametophyte, produce the spore. It
usually resembles a tiny can with a rimmed lid
at the tip of a slender upright stalk.
• All bryophytes have similar life cycles and
habitats. However, based on their structure
and reproduction they are separated into
three distinct phyla.
None of the bryophytes appear closely related to
other living plants. Little evidence is provided by
fossils about the relationship of each phyla to
other phylum.
Botanists speculate that the three lines of
bryophytes may have arisen independently from
ancestral green algae.
DIVISION BRYOPHYTA
• Mosses – almost any greenish covering or
growth on tree trunks and forest floors has
probably been called ‘’moss’’ at one time or
another.
• Ex.: lichens (reinder moss), red algae (irish
moss), flowering plants (Spanish moss) and
club mosses
• Club mosses look somewhat like larger true
mosses but are vascular plants with xylem and
phloem. About 15,000 species of mosses are
currently known. These are divided into three
different classes
• Commonly called peat mosses, true mosses,
and rock mosses
• Mosses are distinct.
• The ‘’leaves’’ of moss gametophytes have no
mesophyll tissue, stomata, or veins such as
those of the leaves of more complex pants.
• The blades are nearly always one cell thick
except at the midrib, which runs lengthwise
down the middle and they are never lobed or
divided nor do they have a petiole (leaf stalk).
The midrib (absent in some genera)
occasionally projects beyond the tip in the
form of a hair or spine.
• The leaf cells usually contain numerous lens-
shaped chloroplasts, except at the midrib. The
leaves of peat mosses, however have large
transparent cells (without chloroplasts) that
absorb and store water. Small, green
photosynthetic cells are sandwiched between
the large cells.
• The axis is somewhat stemlike but has no
xylem or phloem, although there is often a
distinctive central strand of hydroids.
• At the base, there are rootlike rhizoids
consisting of several rows of colorless cells
that anchor the plant. Some water absorbed
by rhizoids rises up the central strand, but
most water used by the plant apparently
travels up the outside of the plant by means of
capillarity.
Asexual Reproduction
• Some reproduction in mosses does not
depend on such a sexual cycle and its
Alternation of Generations.
• It has been demonstrated under laboratory
conditions that cells of archegonia and
antheridia, paraphyses, ‘’leaves’’, stem, and
rhizoids can develop protonemata.
Human and Ecological Relevance of Bryophytes
• Mosses in particular retain moisture slowly
releasing it into the soil. They reduce flooding
and erosion and contribute to humus
formation.
• Some mosses grow only in soils that are rich in calcium; the
presence of others indicates higher than usual soil salinity or
acidity. When certain mosses are present in dry area, it is a good
indication that running water occurs there sometime during the
year. A few mosses are occasionally a problem in water
reservoirs, where they may plug entrances to pipes. A few
bryophytes are reported to be grazed, along with lichens, by
foraging, mammals in arctic regions, but bryophytes are not
generally edible. Some mosses have been used for packing
dishes and stuffing furniture, and Native Americans are
reported to have used mosses for diapers and under splints
when setting broken limbs.
• Most important bryophytes to humans are
mosses. Its extraordinary absorptive capacity
 made it very useful as a soil conditioner in
nurse and as a component of potting mixtures.
Live shellfish and other organisms are shipped
in it
• The natural acidity produced inhibits bacterial
fungal growth and gives it antiseptic
properties.
• The absorbency, which is greater than that of
cotton, combined with the antiseptic
properties made it a useful poultice material
for application to wounds. Peat, like the
decomposed peat mosses, is used around the
world as a soil conditioner and as a fuel.
• In the manufacture of Scotch whiskey,
sproute barley is dried on a screen over a peat
fire. The smoke permeates the barley and
imparts a smoke flavor to the beverage.
DIVISION HEPATOPHYTA (LIVERWORTS)
The word wort simply means plant or herb. In
medieval times when the Doctrine of Signatures
held sway the herbalists of the day through some
of the bryophytes.
Structure and Form
• There are about 8,000 known species of
liverworts. The most common and widespread
liverworts have flattened lobed, somewhat
leaflike bodies called thalli (singular: thallus)
• The thalloid liverworts however constitute only
about 20% of the species.
• The other 80% are ‘’leafy’’ and superficially
resemble mosses.
• Liverworts differ from mosses in several details
and are considered complex.
• Their thalli or leafy stages (gametophytes)
develop from spore. When the spore
germinates, they may produce a protonema,
which is an immature gametophyte consisting
of a short filament cells.
• Thalloid liverworts have smooth upper surface
as well as various markings and pore, and the
corners of cell walls of most liverworts are
specially thickened.
• The lower surfaces have many one-celled
rhizoids. Growth is prostrate instead of upright,
and the rhizoids, which look like tiny roots,
anchor the plants.
‘’Leafy’’ Liverworts are often abundant in tropical
forests and in fog belts. Always have two rows of
partially overlapping “leaves.” The “leaves” have
no midribs.
• In the tropics the lobes form little water pockets
in which tiny animals are nearly always present.
It has been suggested that these water pockets
may function like the pitcher of pitcher plants.
• A third row of ‘’underleaves’’ are smaller than
the other leaves and not visible from the top. A
few rhizoids that anchor the plants develop
from the stemlike axis in the base of the
‘’underleaves’’.
• The archegonia and antheridia of the ‘’leafy’’
liverworts are produced in cuplike structures
composed of a few modified leaves, either in
the axils of leaves or on separate branches. At
maturity, the sporophyte capsule may be
pushed out from among the “leaves” as the seta
elongates. When a spore germinates, it
produces a protonema consisting of a short
filament of photosynthetic cells. The
protonema soon develops into a mature
gametophyte plant.
Asexual Reproduction
• Marchantia reproduces asexually by means of
gemmae (singular: gemma).
• Gemmae are tiny lens-shaped pieces of tissue
that become detached from the thallus.
• Lunularic acid – inhibits development of of
gemmae while in the cup.
Sexual Reproduction
Gametangia
• Produced on separate male and female
gametophyte more specialized than those of
other liverworts.
• Formed on gametophores (umbrella-like
structures borne on slender stalks rising from
the central growth of thallus).
• Antheridiophore: male gametophyte, disclike
with a scalloped margin
• Antheridia: male gametangia produced in
rows just beneath the upper surface of the
antheridiophore.
• Archegoniophore: female gametophyte, like
the hub and spokes of a wagon wheel
• Achegonia: contains a single egg.
• Fertilization occurs before the stalk of the
archegoniophore have finished growing after
which, the zygote develops into a multicellular
embryo.
• Capsule: main part of the sporophyte in which
different types of tissue develop.
• Sporocytes undergo meiosis producing
haploid spores.
• The capsule splits at maturity, and air currents
carry spores away.
DIVISION ANTHOCEROPHYTA (HORNWORTS)
Structure and Form
• Mature sporophytes look like miniature
greenish to black rods that may curve slightly,
have gametophytes that resemble filmy
versions of thalloid liverworts. They are
usually less than 2 centimeters (0.8 inch) in
diameter and thrive mostly on moist earth in
shaded areas, although some occur on trees.
There are only about 100 species worldwide
they are uncommon in arctic regions.
• They differ from liverworts and mosses in
several aspects and appear to be only distantly
related to them.
• Hornworts usually have only one large
chloroplast in each cell.
• Each chloroplast has pyrenoids similar to
those of green algae.
• Nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria often grow in
the mucilage.
• Rhizoids anchor the plants.
Asexual Reproduction
• Hornworts reproduce asexually primarily by
fragmentation or as lobes separate from the
main part of the thallus.
Sexual Reproduction
• Archegonia and antheridia are produced in
rows just beneath the upper surfaces of the
gametophytes.
• Like both mosses and liverworts some species
of hornworts have unisexual plants, whereas
other species are bisexual.
• The distinctive sporophytes of hornworts have
numerous stomata. They have no setae (stalk)
and look like tiny green broom handles or
horns rising through a basal sheath from a foot
beneath the surface of the thallus.
• A meristem above the foot continually
increases the length of the sporophyte from
the base when conditions are favorable.
• Sporophytes undergo meiosis, producing
spores.
• Diploid elaters that function similarly to those
of liverworts are intermingled with the spores.
SEEDLESS VASCULAR PLANTS
❖ DIVISION PSILOPHYTA (Whisk Ferns)
❖ DIVISION LYCOPHYTA (Ground Pines, Spike
Mosses, And Quillworts)
❖ DIVISION ARTHROPHYTA (Equisetum)
❖ DIVISION PTERIDOPHYTA (Cryptograms)
DIVISION PTERIDOPHYTA (CRYPTOGRAMS)
• These plants are the ones that do not have
any flowers or seeds.
• They include ferns and horsetails. In fact, they
can be considered as the first terrestrial
vascular plants, showing the presence of the
vascular tissue, xylem, and phloem.
• They can be found mostly in damp and shady
places. Most ferns are grown as ornamental
plants.
Features of Pteridophytes
• Pteridophytes display differentiation – true
root, stem, and leaves.
• A saprophyte is the main plant body.
• Some of the species belonging to this division
have small leaves called as the microphylls.
 For example, Selaginella. Megaphylls are the
large leaves that some pteridophytes have.
• For example: Fern plants. The main plant
bears the sporangia. These bear some leaf-
like appendages called the sporophylls. In few
species such as Selaginella and Equisetum,
the sporophylls form compact structures
called cones or strobili.
Reproduction
• True alternation of generation. Here, the
dominant sporophyte produces spores
through meiosis. The gametophyte
generation forms gametes by mitosis. The
spores are produced by the sporangia in the
spore mother cells. These spores germinate
and give rise to gametophytes.
• These gametophytes are free-living
multicellular and photosynthetic. They are
called as the prothallus. Generally, the
gametophytes require damp and cool places
to grow, due to their dependence on water.
For this very reason, the growth of
pteridophytes is confined to certain
geographical areas.
• The male sex organs are called the antheridia.
• The female sex organs are called archegonia.
• The male gametes are called antherozoids,
which release by the antheridia.
• When the spores of the plants are similar then
these plants are called homosporous plants.
• Heterosporous plants are the ones that have
two different kinds of spores.
• In these heterosporous plants, the
megaspores and microspores germinate and
give female and male gametophytes
respectively.
DIVISION PSILOPHYTA
The Whisk Ferns
• There is nothing very fernlike in the
appearance of whisk ferns, commonly
referred to by their scientific name of
Psilotum.
• Loosely resemble small green whisk brooms.
Exactly where these plants fit in the Plant
Kingdom is not clear.
• They have been associated with a number of
extinct plants called psilophytes that
flourished perhaps 400 million years ago, but
there is not much fossil evidence to
substantiate the link. because whisk fern and
true fern gametophytes share several
features, some botanists classify them with
the true ferns.
Structure and Form
• Psilotum sporophytes consists almost entirely
of dichotomously forking aerial stems and are
unique among living vascular plants in having
neither leaves nor roots.
• The above-ground stems arise from short,
branching rhizomes just beneath the surface
of the ground.
• Enations, which are tiny, green, superficially
leaflike, veinless, photosynthetic flaps of
tissue are spirally arranged along the stems.
• Photosynthesis takes place in the outer cells of
the stem (epidermis and cortex). A central
cylinder of xylem is surrounded by phloem.
The xylem is star-shaped in cross section.
Short roots, aided by mycorrhizal fungi, are
scattered along the surfaces of the rhizomes.
1. Immature sporangium
2. Sporangia that are fused together in threes
and resemble miniature yellow pumpkins
are produced of the tips of very short,
stubby braches in the upper parts of the
angular stems.
3. Spore released from the sporangia
germinate slowly in the soil, in tree bark or
tree fern “bark” crevices, or in other similar
habitats.
4. The gametophytes, which lack
pigmentation, develop from the spores
beneath the soil surface and are easily
overlooked. Resemble tiny, transparent
dog bone. Cylindrical and may branch
dichotomously. Have no chlorophyll,
 absorbs nutrients via one-celled, rootlike
rhizoids aided by mycorrhizal fungi.
5. Archegonia and antheridia develop
randomly over the surface of the same
gametophyte.
6. After a sperm unites with an egg in an
archegonium, the zygote develops a foot
and a rhizome.
7. As soon as the rhizomes becomes
established, upright stem are produced
and the rhizome separates from the foot.
One group of these fossil plants, of which
Cooksonia and Rhynia are examples had
naked stems (no photosynthetic flaps) and
terminal sporangia.
Cooksonia is the oldest plant known to
have had xylem. A second group of fossils,
represented by Zosterophyllum, had
somewhat rounded sporangia produced
along the upper parts of naked stems
Whisk ferns are of little economic
importance. Their spores have slightly oily
feel and were once nudes by Hawaiian men
to reduce loincloth irritation of the skin.
Hawaiians also made a laxative liquid by
boiling whisk ferns in water.
DIVISION LYCOPHYTA
The ground pines, spike mosses, and quillworts
• The 950 or so known species of club mosses
(ground pines and spike mosses) mostly look
enough like large true mosses that the
Swedish naturalist Linnaeus lumped both
together in a single class.
• Once details of the structure and the form of
club mosses were known, however, it became
obvious that they are quite unrelated to true
mosses. Today, there are living
representatives of two major genera and two
minor genera of club mosses.
• The sporophytes of all species have
microphylls that are usually quite small; they
also have true stems and true roots. The two
major genera: Lycopodium, with about 50
species, and Selaginella, with over 700
species. They are distributed throughout the
world, but they are more abundant in the
tropics and wetter temperate areas.
LYCOPODIUM – GROUND PINES
Structure and form
• Lycopodium plants often grow on forest
floors. They are sometimes called ground
pines, partly because they resemble little
Christmas trees, complete with ‘’cones’’ that
are upright or in a few species hang down.
• The stems of ground sporophytes are either
simple or branched. The plants are mostly less
than 30 centimeters (1 foot) tall, although
some tropical species grow to heights of 1.5
meters (5 feet) or more. The upright or
sometimes pendent stems develop from
branching rhizomes. The leaves may be
whorled or in a tight spiral and are rarely more
than 1 centimeter (0,4 inch) long. Adventitious
roots, whose epidermal cells often produce
root hairs, develop along the rhizomes.
Reproduction
1. At maturity, some species of ground pines
produce kidneybean-shaped sporangia on
short stalk in the axils of specialized leaves.
Such sporangium-bearing leaves are called
sporophylls. In other species, the sporophylls
have no chlorophyll are smaller than the other
leaves and are in terminal conelike clusters
called strobili (singular: strobilus).
2. In the sporangia, sporocytes undergo meiosis,
producing spores that are released and
carried away by air currents.
3. After germination, independent
gametophytes develop from the spores. The
gametophytes vary in shape. Gametophyte
body usually develops in the ground in
association with mycorrhizal fungi. Some
gametophytes develop primarily on the
surface.
4. All types produce both antherida and
archegonia on the same gametophyte that in
some species may live for several years. Since
 the sperm are flagellated water is essential for
fertilization to occur.
5. Zygotes first become embryos, each with a
foot, stem, and leaves which then develop
into mature sporophytes. Underground
gametophytes’ chlorophyll doesn’t develop in
young sporophyte unless it emerges into the
light. A number of ground pines also
reproduce asexually by means of small bulbils
(bulbs produced in the axils of leaves) each of
which is capable of developing into a new
sporophyte.
SELAGINELLA-SPIKE MOSSES
Structure and form
• The sporophytes of Selaginella, the larger of
the two major genera of living club mosses are
sometimes called spike mosses. The
approximately 700 species are widely
scattered around the world in wetter area, but
they are especially abundant in the tropics. A
few are common weeds in greenhouses. They
tend to branch more freely than ground pines,
from which they differ in several respects.
The two most obvious differences are these:
1. Their leaves have a tiny extra appendage or
tongue called a ligule on the upper surface
near the base and
2. They produce two different kinds of spores
and gametophytes on advance feature
referred to as heterospory.
ISOETES-QUILWORTS
Structure and Form
• there are about 60 species of quillworts.
• Most are found in areas where they are at
least partially submerged in water for part of
the year. Their leaves are slightly spoon-
shaped of the base and look like green
porcupine quills, although they are not stiff
and rigid. Arranged in tight spiral on a stubby
stem resembling corn of gladiola or crocus.
Ligules occur toward the leaf bases.
• The corms have a vascular cambium and may
live for many years.
Reproduction
Reproduction is similar to that of spike
mosses, except that no strobili are formed.
Both types of sporangia are produced at the
bases of the leaves. Up to 1 million
microspores may occur in a single
microsporangium.
Human and Ecological Relevance of Club Mosses
and Quillworts
• Manufacture of theatrical explosives and
photographic flashlight powders.
• In the past, druggists mixed spore powder
with pills and tablets to prevent them from
sticking to one another. The spore powder
itself has been used for centuries in folk
medicine, particularly for the treatment of
urinary disorders and stomach upsets.
• Some native Americans used it as a talcum
powder for babies, snuffed it to arrest
nosebleeds, and applied it following childbirth
to stanch hemorrhaging. It was also
sometimes used to stop bleeding from
wounds.
• Reduce fevers, but partly because of
undesirable side effect, medicinal use of club
mosses has now largely been abandoned.
Native American of Washington, Oregon, and
British Columbia becomes mildly intoxicated
after chewing parts of one local species of club
moss. It is reported that they become
unconscious.
• Ground pines and spike mosses have been
used ornamentally indoors as ground covers.
Some ground pines are spray painted and
used as Christmas ornaments or in floral
wreaths.
• Several species of lycopodium have been
exploited to extent that they are now on rare
and endangered or threatened species lists;
they should no longer be collected.
• Quillwort corms have been eaten by domestic
and wild animals, waterfowl, and humans.
DIVISION ARTHROPHYTA
• The division Arthrophyta (also called
Sphenophyta) contains several genera of
extinct plants and one genus, Equisetum, with
15 extant species known as horsetails or
scouring rushes.
• The living plants are all herbs without any
secondary growth, and although certain
species may attain a height of up to 10 m, they
are usually less than 1 m tall. Their aerial
stems have a characteristics joined structure,
with a whorl of fused leaves as the nodes.
• The leaves are small and have just a single
trace to vascular tissue, but they are small
megaphylls, not microphylls.
• The vertical aerial stems from deep
subterranean rhizomes, in harsh habitats
aerial shoots die during winter, but rhizomes
persist and plants can spread vigorously.
• True roots are present being at the rhizome’s
nodes. The evolutionary origin of roots is still
uncertain.
• Equisetum plants are small, having vertical
shoots that arise from subterranean, highly
branched rhizomes. In some species such as E.
debile, each shoot is both photosynthetic and
reproductive; in other species such as E.
telmateia two distinct types of shoots are
produced. (R. and L. Mitchell; W.E Ferguson)
umbrella-shaped sporangiophore. This has a
short stalk and a flat, shield-shaped head form
which the sporangia project parallel to the
sporangiophore stalk.
• Equisetum is homosporous, so all plants have
only one type of sporangiophore and
strobilus, but is some species the strobilus
occurs at the tip of a green photosynthetic
shoot, whereas in other it is borne on a
special, colorless reproductive shoot.
• After spores are released they germinate on
moist soil and develop into small (1 mm
across) green gametophytes. They have no
vascular tissue at all and no epidermis or
stomata; the body is just a small mass of
parenchyma. Whereas the gametophytes of
Psilotum are still somewhat complex, those of
Equisetum, ferns, and seed plants are all
simple. The gametophytes of Equisetum are
either male or bisexual. Antheridia release
numerous multiflagellate sperms that swim to
the archegonia and eggs. The megagamete
and zygote are never released, but rather are
retained and nourished by the gametophyte.

Internal structure is a distinctive as external

morphology.

• Stems have pith, so these are siphonosteles,

not protosteles.
• Vessels are rare outside the flowering plants,
occurring only in Selaginella, four ferns, three
genera of gymnosperms, and Equisetum. Stem
elongation causes some cells to be stretched
and torn, forming canals.
• The epidermis contains stomatal pores and
guard cells as well as such large amount of
silica that the stems are tough and rigid.
• Reproductive structures in Equisetum are
specialized sporangia never occur singly, but
always in groups of five to ten located on an