What is a Bryophyte?
A bryophyte is a small green plant with a simple structure that contains only two parts, the stem and the leaf, and sometimes only a flat frond, without real roots and vascular bundles. Moss plants like dark and humid environments, and usually grow on bare stone walls, or wet forests and swamps. In the life history of moss plants, the mature gametophyte stage often has leaf-like organs.
- Moss is a small green autotrophic terrestrial plant. The lower types are only flat fronds. The higher types have pseudoroot and stem-leaf differentiation, but there is no vascular tissue inside. The sporophyte is simple and parasitic on the gametophyte. Grow in a dark and humid environment. There are about 2800 species in China, including more than 50 families of more than 20 families of medicinal plants [1]
- Moss plants, like cyanobacteria and lichens, live in sandy deserts, tundra areas, and exposed rock surfaces or newly fractured rock formations. They can continuously secrete acidic substances, dissolve the rock surface, and the dead debris itself is also deposited on the rock surface In recent years, it has created living conditions for other higher plants, so it is one of the pioneers of the plant world. Moss plants generally have a large water absorption capacity, especially when densely clumped, when its water absorption is high, it can reach 15-20 times the dry weight of the plant body, but its evaporation is only 1/5 of the water surface. Therefore, it plays an important role in preventing soil erosion [2]
- The main characteristics of bryophytes are: large roots and small leaves, some plants
- In some mosses and horned mosses, the mature gametophyte is slightly flattened or even flattened (protozoa) and often clings to the substrate. The gametophytes of most bryophytes are often fixed to the substrate with filamentous pseudoroots; the pseudoroots are mainly fixed organs and have absorption. Sporophytes are usually annual and attach to the gametophyte to varying degrees to absorb nutrients and water. The sporophyte has spores on the stem-like structure, and the spores are scattered from the spores. After the spores germinate, they form gametophytes-lamellar fronds or stems and leaves with differentiated stems and leaves. The sporophytes develop on the gametophyte. Moss plants can also pass through fragments of gametophytes or specialized cells that sprout and germinate like spores
- When collecting bryophyte specimens, try to collect plants with sporangia; bryophytes often grow on trunks or branches, which must be harvested together with the bark of the branches, and after the specimens are collected, each paper must be used Wrap it up, put it in a kraft paper bag, and don't pinch or squeeze it to keep it in its natural state [3] .