Life Cycle of Mosses like Physcomitrella
Life cycle of the moss Physcomitrella patens. Image: Ralf Reski. (please click to enlarge)Whereas in seed plants the diploid spermatophore is dominant, in mosses this part belongs to the haploid gametophore. To learn about the life cycle of Physcomitrella click on the image to enlarge it.
Comparison of seed plants and mosses
Cauloid - Shoot
Phylloid - Leaf
Rhizoid - Root
Mosses, like seed plants, possess a (thin) cuticula, cellulose, stoma, chlorophyll a and b and carotenoids - they are land plants. However, they do neither have vascular bundles nor lignin.
Some interesting things about mosses
They can regenerate very well from every part of the plant. They can survive long times of dryness (up to 14 years), extreme cold (antarctica) and heat (70 to 110 degrees Celsius). They can live with only 0.1% of sun light (seed plants need at least 2%). (There is of course no single moss that possesses all this features.