1. Seedless Plants
C9L2

2. The 3 Major categories of plants

3. Non-vascular plants
Division Bryophyta
moss
liverwort
hornwort

4. Non-vascular plants These plants are called bryophytes.
Phylum Bryophyta (means “mosslike plant”)

5. Non-vascular plants
Water and other materials are transported by diffusion.
Fairly short.

6. Non-vascular plants
Sometimes have parts that look like roots, stems, or leaves, but there is no vascular tissue so they don’t have roots, stems, or leaves.
Live near water or shady places.

7. Just because a plant has the word “moss” in its name, doesn’t make it moss. Examples …
Irish moss (algae)
Reindeer moss (lichen – fungus & algae
Spanish moss (flowering plant)

8. Irish Moss

9. Reindeer Moss

10. Spanish Moss

11. Parts of a moss plant
leafy shoot- a slender stalk with leaflike structures; each of the tiny leaflike structures on moss is 1 cell layer thick

12. Rhizoids are structures that anchor a nonvascular seedless plant to a surface.

13. Parts of a moss plant
Leafy
shoot
Leaflet
Rhizoids

14. Moss Leafy Shoot

15. Alternation of Generations
Life Cycle of Moss
Alternation of Generations
Sporophyte Generation: produces spores (asexual)
Gametophyte Generation: produces gametes (sexual)

16. Life Cycle of Moss Gametophyte Generation
The top of the male gametophyte bears the antheridia which produces sperm
The top of the female gametophyte has one or more archegonia which contains the ova
Sperm swim from the antheridia to the archegonia and fertilizes an ovum (zygote)

17. Life Cycle of Moss Sporophyte Generation
Zygote grows into a stalk with a capsule which produces spores
When mature the cap comes off and spores disperse
Spore grows when environmental conditions are right
First grows into a cellular filament called a protonema
Protonema then forms the leafy shoots and rhizoids

18. Life Cycle of Moss
Protonema

19. Moss

20. Moss Capsule

21. Marchantia – a common liverwort with a y-shaped thallus
Liverworts
“Liver Plant”
Marchantia – a common liverwort with a y-shaped thallus
Have splash platforms which look like little umbrellas

22. Benefits of Mosses Help to replenish the soil
Help to prevent soil erosion
Peat moss or Sphagnum is used by gardeners to pack plants for shipment and in Iceland and other northern regions it is used as fuel
Has been used for surgical dressing

23. Sphagnum
Sphagnum is a genus of between 1510 and 3500 species of mosses, commonly called peat moss due to its prevalence in wet habitats where it contributes to the formation of peat bogs and mires.

24. Division Pteridophyta
Vascular Plants Without Seeds
Ferns

25. Ferns: nonflowering vascular plants
Spore-bearing leaves
Horizontal undergound stems
1-2 feet tall
Tropical ferns may grow as tall as 60 ft. with fronds ft.
Some are epiphytes

26. Parts of a fern: Fronds – leaves
Rhizome – a creeping or underground stem, which produce roots
Sori – groups of spore-bearing sporangia (means “a heap”)

27. Fern Sori
Sori may be round, kidney-shaped, oblong, linear, curved, or star-shaped.

28. Sporophyte Generation of Ferns
A new fern’s life cycle typically begins in July with the appearance of sori on the undersurface or along the margins of a frond.

29. Sporophyte Generation
Sori appear on the underside of a frond.
Sori first open and discharge millions of spores.

30. Gametophyte Generation
Spore develops into a tiny green, heart-shaped structure called a prothallus.
Seldom seen, only 1 cell layer in thickness.

31. Gametophyte Generation
The underside of the prothallus develops archegonia and antheridia
Antheridia near the point (sperm)
Archegonia at notched end (ova)

32. Gametophyte Generation
Sperm are released from the antheridia and swim to the ovum at the bottom of the archegonia.

33. Sporophyte Generation
Zygote matures and sends the first leaf up and the first root down.
The first leaf is often a fan-shaped blade.
The second leaf is usually a fiddlehead, a coiled young leaf. Some fiddleheads are edible and used in salads.

35. Fern Alternation of Generation Facts
Ferns usually require 3-7 years to reach reproductive maturity.
Fern plants (sporophytes) live for several years and produce new fronds each year
Dominant generation: Sporophyte

36. Fern Alternation of Generation Facts
Protellia (gametophytes) only live 3-7 weeks, in which time they produce the archegonia and antheridia.
Dominant generation:
Sporophyte

37. Other seedless vascular plants: club moss, whiskfern & horsetail

38. club moss
club mosses: (also called "ground pine" because they grow along the ground in temperate regions)

39. horsetail all but one group have become extinct
the epidermis contains a glasslike substance (silica) which feels very rough to the touch
called "scouring rushes" - used for scouring pots and pans before scouring powder and pads were known.

40. Horsetail (cont.)
Horsetails have small leaves growing in circles around the stems.
Horsetail stems are hollow, and the tissues contain silica, a mineral in sand, that makes them abrasive.
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