Francine Antoinette M.

Gonzales

Sir Ross D. Vasquez

IF-PH

CHAPTER 20
1. Some vascular plants produce seeds, others do not. Vascular plants
that do not produce seeds are known as vascular cryptogams
,
whereas vascular plants that do produce seeds are known as
spermatophytes
. Are there any plants that produce seeds
but which do not have vascular tissue?
Yes. These plants are the Bryophytes.
2. What are some of the modifications necessary if an alga is to
become evolutionarily adapted to living on land? Is a single
modification sufficient, or are several necessary?
Some modifications are: 1) the formation of dormant, droughtresistant spores, 2) the ability to continue active metabolism by
conserving water and avoiding desiccation, 3) the large, compact,
multi-cellular body, 4) the changing to coordinate gametes when
reproducting, 5) and the jacket of one or several layers around the
gamete and spore mother cells. Several are efficient because the
modifications mentioned work together to make an alga survive a
certain environment.
3. Why would it be necessary for an evolutionarily line to develop
stomata and guard cells before it developed an extremely impervious
cuticle? Why must vascular tissues precede the evolution of roots and
active apical meristems?
There had to be the simultaneous evolution of stomatal pores and
guard cells because a more protective cuticle also prevents the entry
of carbon dioxide. Vascular tissue, especially phloem, also made
feasible the evolution of heterotrophic tissues roots, meristems and
organ primordia. Without phloem, each plant can grow and develop
only as rapidly as its photosynthesis permits, but phloem allows
mobilization of sugars, minerals, and hormones throughout the entire
body and their transfer transfer to a shoot apical meristem or a group

of sporangia, thus permitting a more vigourous, robust growth than

could otherwise occur.
4. The following organisms are often called mosses, but they are not
actually closely related to mosses at all. What groups of plants do they
actually belong to?
a. Spanish moss It is the flowering plant Tillandsia usneoides of the
pineapple family.
b. Club mosses Lycophytes
c. Slimy, bright green mosses of ponds and slow-moving streams Spirogyra
d. Reindeer moss Lichens
5. What are the three groups of nonvascular plants? How would you
determine whether an unknown specimen is a vascular plant?
The three groups of nonvascular plants are the liverworts
(Hepatophyta), mosses (Bryophyta), and hornworts (Anthocerophyta).
You would determine whether an unknown specimen is a vascular
plant if a plant has a vascular tissue. The sporophytes in vascular plants
(considered as flowering plants) are the large plants with leaves and
roots, whereas gametophytes are tiny and occur inside pollen grains
and ovules.
6. The nonvascular plants of this chapter are believed to be true plants,
just as ferns, conifers, and flowering plants are true plants; however,
there are two tissues that the nonvascular plants do not have. Which
two tissues?
These two tissues are the xylem and phloem tissues.
7. If the leptoids of mosses were found to contain a protein whose gene
had the same nucleotide sequence as the gene that codes for Pprotein, would that be significant evidence for either the homology or
analogy of leptoids and phloem?
No, it is not known if Leptoids are homologous or merely
analogous to the phloem.

8. You will see sporophytes only if you examine mosses closely. They will
look like green or brown
hairs
standing up on the green
gametophyte, but sporophytes are (circle one: present almost all the
time, only present at certain times of the year.
9. Do mosses have an alternation of isomorphic or heterotrophic
generations? That is, can you easily tell a moss gametophyte from a
moss sporophyte? When we look at leafy green moss plants, what are
we seeing the gametophyte or the sporophyte? In a flowering plant
species, would the equivalent stage be the plant or the pollen grains
and megagametophytes?
Mosses have an alternation of heterotrophic generations
because you can easily tell a moss gametophyte from a moss
sporophyte. When we look at leafy green moss plants, what are we
seeing are the gametophyte. In a flowering plant species the
equivalent stage would be the plant because sporophytes in vascular
plants (considered as flowering plants) are the large plants with leaves
and roots.
10. The leafy, green moss plants that are so familiar are gametophytes,
haploid plants. This is very different from flowering plants and other seed
plants. Does a leafy green moss plant grow from a spore or from a
fertilized egg? Does the moss plant have both a paternal parent and a
maternal parent?
A leafy green moss plant grows from a fertilized egg. Yes, the
moss plant has both a paternal parent and a maternal parent.
11. Draw a single moss plant, similar to the one on Figure 20-10. Be
certain to show the gametophyte and the sporophyte. Now draw one
without the sporophyte, showing only the gametophyte. The
sporophytes usually have only a very brief life, and after they shed their
spores, the gametophytes let them die.

12. Draw and label the life cycle of a moss; be certain to show
gametangia and sporangia. Which parts are haploid and which are
diploid? Where and when does meiosis occur? Plasmogamy?
Karyogamy?

Meiosis, plasmogamy and karyogamy take place in the diploid

phase.
13. In the majority of mosses, which lack hydroids and leptoids, water is
conducted along the exterior of the plant by capillary action.
14. The leafy, green moss plants, being gametophytes, have
gametangia, structures that produce gametes. What is the name of
the gametangium that produces sperm cells? The gametangium that
produces egg cells? Can one single moss gametophyte bear both of
these? Do some species have plants that produce only sperm cells?
Other plants that produce only egg cells?
The name of the gametangium that produces sperm cells is the
antheridium. The gametangium that produces egg cells is the
archegonium. Yes, one single moss gametophyte could bear both of
these. Yes, some species have plants that produce only sperm cells
and other plants produce only egg cells like the Barbula, Polytrichum,
Rhacomitrium.
15. The sporophyte of a moss usually has a stalk called a
a simple apical sporangium called a
capsule .

seta

and

16. Many people often think of mosses as plants adapted to rainy

areas, areas that are usually wet. Are any mosses adapted to deserts?
Can some mosses lose much of their water the way a seed does
before being planted and still survive?
Yes, mosses are also adapted to desserts as long as 30% of their
weight is water, they remain dormant and alive. Yes, mosses like lichens
could lose much of their water the way a seed does before being
planted and still survive.
17. The liverwort Marchantia is one of the largest and most common.
There is a good chance that you will find it if you search carefully in
moist places (you may have to search many places). Is it a leafy
liverwort or a thallose one? Describe its surface texture (see Figure 20-8).
If you are very lucky, you may find it with archegoniophores and
antheridiophores. What are these structures, and how would you
recognize them if you saw them (what do they look like)?

It is a thallose liverwort and its surface is moist. The

archegoniophores are the female gametophores and are stalked, but
their apex is a set of radiating fingers that project outward and droop
downward. The antheridiophores are the male gametophores and it
has a stalk several meters tall, and dozens of antheridia grow from its
upper surface, each surrounded by a rim of sterile cells.
18. Unlike Marchantia, some liverworts are as simple as a true plant can
possibly get. Describe the body of Sphaerocarpos texanus. If you were
shown one of these plants, how would you be certain it was not an
alga (Hint: It would be almost impossible; there is only one way, not
mentioned in the text. Algae tend to have only one chloroplast per
cell; true plants including S. texanus always have many, except in
the hornworts)? The point of this question is to have you think about
how little difference there is between some algae and some true
plants.
The zygote grows into a spherical mass within the archegonium of
the gametophores body. No foot or seta is formed; instead, the inner
cells of this mass undergo meiosis and produce spores.
19. What are some of the ways in which liverworts differ from mosses?
How do hornworts differ from both? Do the three have similar life cycle?
Liverworts sporophytes consist of foot, seta, and capsule, but no
elaborate set of teeth as in mosses. Instead, the apex breaks into
several segments, all of which curl back and release the spores.
Hornworts differ from both by having a single large chloroplast in each
cell as opposed to the numerous small plastids present in all other
nonalgal plants.
20. What are the horns of hornworts? What do they produce? They
have a meristem. Where is it located?
The horns of hornworts are sporophytes that grow continuously
from a basal meristem and produce spores.
21. An important consideration in the evolution of any organism is gene
flow. What are some of the mechanisms by which genes move through
the habitat in nonvascular plants? In a dense, cool forest, how strong
are the wind currents? Could they carry spores very far? What would

you guess might be the maximum distance sperms can swim? How far
can a rain drop splash a sperm or spore?
These mechanisms could be the environment that would move
genes through the habitat in nonvascular plants. In a dense, cool
forest, wind currents are strong enough to carry spores afar. I guess the
distance may be a maximum of a meter. A rain drop splash a sperm or
spore many inches away.
1. Air spores
These are not stomata - they have no guard cells and cannot be
closed.
2. Antheridiophore
In liverworts, an umbrella-shaped outgrowth of the gametophyte,
bearing antheridia.
3. Archegoniophores
In liverworts, an outgrowth of the gametophyte, bearing
archegonia and having a stalk with radiating fingers of tissue.
4. Archegonium
Any structure in true plants that produces an egg; the
megagametangium of true plants.
5. Calyptra
In nonvascular plants, a small sheath of cells, derived from the
archegonium, which covers the top of the capsule.
6. Capsule
In mosses and liverworts, the sporophyte generation.
7. Elaters
In the sporangia of liverworts and horsetails, small twisted cells
that push the spores out of the spotrangium.
8. Foot

Attachment of the sporophyte to the gametophyte.

9. Gametophores
The leafy stem of a moss gametophyte.
10. Hornworts
Differ from other nonvascular plants by having a single large
chloroplast in each cell as opposed to the numerous small plastids
present in all other nonalgal plants.
11. Liverworts
Liverworts have sporophytes that consist of foot, seta, and
capsule, but no elaborate set of teeth as in mosses. Instead, the apex
breaks into several segments, all of which curl back and release the
spores.
12. Mosses
Are ubiquitous, occurring in all parts of the world and in almost
every environment.
13. Operculum
In mosses, the lidlike top of a sporangium.
14. Peristome teeth
In a moss capsule, the one or two sets of teeth-like structures
around the mouth of the sporangium.
15. Protonema
In nonvascular plants, the mass of alga-like cells that grow from
the spore during germination.
16. Rhizoids
In certain fungi, algae, and nonvascular plants, cells or parts of
cells that project into the substrate and anchor the organism.
17. Seta

In mosses and liverworts the stalk of the capsule, located

between the foot and the sporangium.
18. Thallus
In fungi, algae, and plants, a simple body that lacks vascular
tissues and the complex organs of vascular plants.