Background and Aims Following the consensus view for unitary origin and conserved function of stomata across over 400 million years of land plant evolution, stomatal abundance has been widely used to reconstruct palaeo-atmospheric environments. Mosses are anchored to the substrate by rhizoids, which originate from the base of the gametophyte. Liverworts are separated into leafy and thalloid liverworts. Mosses, being nonvascular, aren't considered to have true roots, but they do have rootlike rhizomes that help absorb water and nutrients and hold the moss in place. Though they don’t have stomata on their leaves, mosses have stomatal-like pores on their spore capsules which are thought to help them regulate water levels as these dry out and split to disperse the mature spores inside (Pennisi, 2017). The leafy shoots (often called gametophores, because they bear the sex organs) arise from a preliminary phase called the protonema, the direct product of spore germination. Mosses have traits that are adaptations to dry land, such as stomata present on the stems of the sporophyte. However, moss and hornworts have stomata which are pores that specialize in the exchange of CO2 and O2 between the atmosphere and the interior of the plant. However, stomata do … Mosses have simple conductive cells and are attached to the substrate by rhizoids. Plant growth normally occurs at meristems, which are localized regions of cells specialized for cell proliferation. The moss sporangium is a complex structure that allows release of … Leafy liverworts are the simplest species and have just a single layer of cells in their leaves. Unlike tracheophytes that have stomata on anatomically complex leaves and stems, mosses bear stomata exclusively on spore-bearing organs (capsules). These structures are morphologically similar to stomata in the rest of land plants, consisting of a pair of guard cells surrounding a pore. Beside above, do mosses have stomata? Plant reproductive system - Plant reproductive system - Mosses: In mosses, as in liverworts and hornworts, the leafy shoots belong to the gametophytic phase and produce sex organs when they mature. Mosses have green, flat structures that resemble true leaves, which absorb water and nutrients; some mosses have small branches. The earliest land plant macrofossils from 400 ma exhibit similar sporangial morphologies and stomatal distribution to extant mosses, suggesting that the earliest mosses may have possessed and lost stomata as is common in the group. Mosses and hornworts are the earliest among extant land plants to have stomata, but unlike those in all other plants, bryophyte stomata are located exclusively on the sporangium of the sporophyte. Growth at meristems. Extant taxa in early divergent moss lineages either lack stomata or produce pseudostomata that do not form pores. Stomata on leaves and stems of tracheophytes are involved in gas exchange and water transport. Stomata of bryophytes are only present in the sporophyte generation of mosses and hornworts; liverworts do not have stomata. The position of moss stomata above spongy photosynthetic tissue and active stomatal aperture control suggests that moss stomatal patterning might be governed by the same evolutionary pressures as those in angiosperms, i.e. Hornworts developed stomata and possess a single chloroplast per cell. They differ to more advanced plants because they do not have any stomata in their tissue which are used by most plant groups for taking CO 2 into their leaves for photosynthesis. They colonize harsh habitats and can regain moisture after drying out. Current opinion suggests moss stomata facilitate nutrient and water transport and gas exchange in the developing sporophyte 26,27 and also assist dehiscence and release of spores during sporophyte maturation 28, when pores become less able to close. Abstract. 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