Question

Bryophytes are photosynthetic but do not have vascular tissues and true roots.This feature enables them to resemble which of the following?
A. Fungi
B. Algae
C. Pteridophytes
D. Angiosperms

Answer 1

Hint: Bryophytes are an informal group of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes) consisting of three divisions: liverworts, hornworts and mosses.While they can thrive in drier conditions, they are characteristically restricted in size and prefer moist habitats. Bryophytes consist of around 20,000 species of plants. Bryophytes produce enclosed reproductive structures (gametangia and sporangia), but flowers or seeds are not produced.

Complete Answer:
Bryophytes are nonvascular plants. More than 17,000 species of bryophytes still exist, considering the dominance of vascular plants today. They include liverworts, mosses, and hornworts. The majority of bryophytes are small.

Not only do they lack vascular tissues; they also lack leaves, seeds , and flowers that are genuine. They have hair-like rhizoids instead of roots to bind them to the ground and to absorb water and minerals. In moist environments, bryophytes occupy niches, but since they lack vascular tissue, they are not very effective at absorbing water. A bryophyte's rhizoids can be so good that they are only one cell thick.

Bryophytes depend on moisture to replicate as well. In order to reach an egg formed by a female gametophyte, sperm produced by a male gametophyte must swim through a layer of rainwater or dew. In order to produce haploid spores, the small, diploid sporophyte generation then undergoes meiosis. To spread, the spores will also require moisture.

The similarities between bryophytes and algae are as follows: in nature the plants are typically thalloid;
- Instead, the roots are absent and the root is replaced by the unicellular or multicellular structure of the rhizoids.
- The cell walls consist of cellulose.
- The starch is the backup food product.
- The nutrition mode is autotrophic because it has chloroplast.
- There is no vascular tissue such as xylem and phloem, which are the features of higher plants.
- The dominant phase in the life cycle is the gametophytic phase.
- Flagellate and motile sperm formation.
- Currently, flagella whiplash.
- Fertilization requires water.
- Green and filamentous are the young gametophytic stages of most mosses, resembling the thallus of green algae.

The correct Answer is option (B) Algae.

Note: An economically relevant bryophyte is the peat moss genus Sphagnum. A multimillion-dollar industry is the harvesting, refining, and selling of Sphagnum peat. Peat is used as an energy source (fuel) in horticulture and to a limited degree, in the extraction of organic materials, in the manufacture of whiskey and as insulation.