Main classes and types of mosses: similarities and differences

One of the most ancient inhabitants of our planet are numerous species of mosses and lichens covering large areas. These plants combine kinship with algae, but there are significant differences between them.

Lichen is a symbiosis of fungi and algae. Algae grows between the fungal fibers. This structure of the lichen body allows the plant to absorb moisture with the help of mushroom threads and to process the minerals dissolved in it into organic substances with the help of green algae. Compared with mosses, lichens are more unpretentious, but wither with a lack of moisture and die in the absence of light.

Mosses need shading and water, which is sucked from the earth by special filamentary processes - rhizoids, which act as roots. Different types of mosses have different structures, but they all multiply by spores. Water plays a key role in reproduction, because it is with its help that the spores of male individuals reach the female zygote and fertilize it.

All types of mosses reproduce with an intermediate stage - the formation of asexual plants - a protophyte, incapable of reproduction, on which a capsule with spores ripens. As a result of meiosis, the spores germinate and form a protoneme - a filamentary structure, which later turns into a female or male plant - gametophyte. Thus, there is an alternation of the sex generation with asexual.

Mossy plants are conventionally divided into 3 classes:

1. Anthocerot. Types of mosses of this class include more than 300 species, the main zone of distribution is the tropics. Anthocero mosses have a peculiar structure - the sexual organs are located in the lower layer of the plant, which is a rosette, out of which protrudes an elongated pod-shaped sporogen, which has eletars - threads that promote better dispersion of spores.

2. Hepatic mosses, represented by subclasses marshantsievye and yungermannievye. The first subclass includes plants whose gametophyte can be diverse in form and has one oily corpuscle, and the sporogen is primitive and devoid of septa. Plants of the second subclass have several oily bodies and are very diverse in form of gametophyte. Liverworts are especially common in the tropics and subtropics.

3. Listostebelnye. Types of mosses of deciduous type number several tens of thousands (about 95% of all mosses) and include 3 subclasses: brieves, sphagnous and andreev. To the andreev are small plants of red-brown color, grow on rocks. For sphagnum, the presence of a direct stem and sporogon in the form of a spherical capsule is characteristic. Brass mosses are very diverse, but all plants have special teeth to dissipate spores.

All deciduous trees became widespread in forests and marshes, in the northern regions. The most famous are the moss kukushkin flax, sphagnum, and leukobryri - moss species, photos of which are found both in serious encyclopedias and in photographic collections.

Mosses play a huge role in the formation of biocenoses and in the formation of peat, which is used in industry. To design the garden areas, moss is used, which is easy to grow on its own using yeast, sugar, kefir and any part of plants.