Bryophyta

Laubmoose

Phylum recognized by
Gefährdungsstatus auf der Roten Liste der gefährdeten Arten: NOT EVALUATED external link Switch to common names

Navigation Media-Center
Bryophyta

Images


Wählen Sie Bilder

Eurhynchium striatum
 Hypnum cupressiforme
 Racomitrium canescens
 Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus
 Tortula muralis
 Plagiomnium affine
 Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw.
 Thuidium tamariscinum
 Thuidium tamariscinum

Seitennavigation

Page 1 Weiter
Klassifikation : Text | Grafisch |

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Quellen und weitere Informationen
Supplier
Tree of Life web project external link
Source
Efrain De Luna external link
Source
Angela E. Newton external link
Source
Brent D. Mishler external link
Copyright
Some rights reserved external link
Source URL
View original data object external link

Diversity of mosses has been classified in approximately 10,000 species, 700 genera, and about 110-120 families. This places the mosses as the third most diverse group of land plants, only after the angiosperms and ferns. Mosses are small plants requiring stereoscopes and compound microscopes for routine examination. The conspicuous green leafy shoots are the gametophytes, haploid organisms, on which the diploid embryo develops into a mature sporophyte (Figure 1). The sporophyte is chlorophyllose and photosynthetic only in early stages of development, and it is mostly dependent on the gametophyte. Moss colonies are a very important element in many ecosystems, from the tundra to the tropical rain forest, reducing soil erosion, capturing water and nutrients, providing shelter for microfauna, and nurseries for seedlings in succession or regeneration processes.

As a lineage, mosses are a historically crucial group in the understanding of the transition to life on land. The green leafy shoots (gametophytes) retain some features of the green algal ancestors (chlorophylls a and b, starch, sperm with two forward undulipodia), but the needle-like shoots that produce the spores (sporophytes) display key innovations for the life outside water, such as stomates, a simple strand of conductive cells [in an unbranched sporophyte], and airborne spores produced in a single apical capsule (sporangium). This is the simplest structural level among all land plants. The next organizational level is found in two fossil groups: Horneophythopsida and Aglaophyton (Rhynia) major, where the sporophyte is branched and produces several sporangia. The sporophyte shows the most complex structural organization in the tracheophytes.