Test: Bryophytes - 2 (Old NCERT) - NEET MCQ

Bryophytes are small, non-vascular plants in the plant kingdom this is why they like to grow in moist places so that in the absence of roots even they can absorb the moisture from the ground, male gametes are motile and with the help of water they can swim into it and can reach to the female part, they belong to the lower class of the plant kingdom due to which they have less characters and they do not have water proof coating of cutin on their aerial surface to prevent water loss.

Cryptothallus and Buxbaumia are saprophytic genera of liverworts and mosses and grow upon organic matter such as rotten wood on contrary to the rest of the bryophytes, which are autotrophic. These are saprophytic because they do not produce much chlorophyll to perform photosynthesis.
Therefore, the correct answer is option D.

Sphagnum that generally grows in bogs can absorb large amounts of water i.e., upto 18 times its weight. Therefore, it is extensively used by gardeners to keep seedlings and cut plant parts moist during transportation and propagation. In older times it was also used in place of absorbent cotton.

Bryophytes, or "moss plants" (the phylum includes both mosses and liverworts), are the most primitive of the terrestrial plants and require a moist environment for their existence. They are smaller than tracheophytes and lack the true stems, leaves and roots, that are found in higher plants. Bryophytes are dependent upon the moisture in their surroundings for both reproduction and fluid transport. The flagellated male gametes of Bryophytes, like those of their aquatic ancestors, rely on water to help them move toward female gametes. Additionally, because they lack the efficient system of internal fluid transport found in tracheophytes, Bryophytes require environmental moisture to ensure that all parts of the plants remain nourished. The necessity of water for the act of fertilization; their amphibian nature and the presence of ciliated antherozoids are the supporting points which indicate their aquatic ancestory.

The green algae, known as the Charophytes, and land plants are grouped together into a subphylum called as the Streptophytina and are, therefore, called as Streptophytes. Land plants, which are called as Embryophytes, are classified into two major groups according to the absence or presence of vascular tissue. Plants that lack vascular tissue, which is formed of specialized cells for the transport of water and nutrients, are referred to as non-vascular plants or Bryophytes. Non-vascular Embryophytes probably appeared early in land plant evolution and are all seedless. These plants include liverworts, mosses, and hornworts.

Stems in mosses are multicellular and can show a surprising amount of tissue differentiation depending on the species of moss. Typically, most mosses have cortical cells (also called parenchyma cells), that compose much of the stem, and thick walled cells called as stereids for structural support. Some mosses have internal conducting strands, that guide water and even metabolites through the stem. In general the cells, that conduct water are called as hydroids and cells that conduct metabolites are called as leptoids. A leptoid is a type of elongated food-conducting cell in the stems of some mosses, which surround strands of water-conducting hydroids.

A tiny elongated structure that helps disperse plant spores by coiling and uncoiling in response to changes in humidity. The elaters of horsetails are bands attached to the spore wall, while those of liverworts are sterile cells occurring among the spores.
Elaters found in capsules of bryophytes play important role in their bursting. The hygroscopic nature of elaters allow them to absorb moisture as as result of which they swell, The swelling of elater exerts pressure on the walls of capsules, which ultimately leads to bursting of the capsules.

Bryophytes have a dominant gametophyte phase on which the adult sporophyte is dependent for the nutrition. The embryo sporophyte develops by cell division of the zygote within the archegonium, and in its early development, it is nurtured by the gametophyte.

In Anthoceros, it extends from base to the top of the capsule. It originates from the inner layer of amphithecium. In young sporophyte it over arches the columella (a feature in contrast to liverworts).

In Bryophyta, organs are referred to as "Leaf like' and 'Stem like' and not the true leaf and stem, because leaf and stem have the complex tissues, which perform the water and food conduction. Bryophytes being the lower plants do not have true leaf, stem and roots. They do not have vascular tissue system.

Mosses show an advance on some liverworts in that the plant body is differentiated into simple stems and leaves, though it has no roots, rhizoids still being present, but these are multicellular and have oblique septa.
Liverworts and hornworts have dorsiventrally flattened lobed plant body, with unicellular rhizoids.

Bryophytes are the cryptogamae, which do not bear flowers and seeds. They are non-vascular land plants of moist habitat, in which diploid sporophyte lives as a parasite on independent haploid gametophyte. 
Pteridophytes are vascular cryptogams due to the presence of vascular tissues in the plant body.
Gymnosperms and Angiosperms are Phanerogams, which possess flowers and seeds.