Phylum Bryophyta

Abstract

A very brief overview of the Bryophyta, especially those of New Zealand.

Keywords: bryophyte, Bryophyta, Anthocerotae, Hepaticae, Musci, New Zealand

Introduction

Among the most primitive of land plants - indeed, of all plants - are the bryophytes: the mosses, liverworts, and the less well-known hornworts.

Bryophytes, together with ferns, lycopods, horsetails and the algal ancestors to all land plants are fertilized by sperm, "whereas gymnosperms and angiosperms are fertilized by pollen, which is drought-resistant and dispersed by wind or animals. Sperm are usually considered inefficient and poorly adapted to terrestrial conditions because of their dependency on a continuous water layer for dispersal" (Cronberg et al. 2006, p. 1255). The recent study by Cronberg et al. (2006), however, provides strong evidence that microarthropods mediate sperm transfer in mosses.

Systematics

Kingdom Plantae

Phylum (Division) Bryophyta

A para and illustration of each class; use as an anchor for NZ Anthocerotae

Class Anthocerotae

The class Anthocerotae comprises a single order, the Antherocerotales, which in turn comprises only one of two familys, the Anthocerotaceae, and some place the genus Notothylas in its own family, the Notothyaceae.

Five to nine genera are recognised, including Anthoceros, Megaceros, Dendroceros, Phaeoceros (sometimes, as here, treated as a subgenus or partial synonym of Aspiromitus or Anthoceros), Folioceros, and Notothylas. These are widely distributed in temperate and tropical latitudes; all genera found in tropics and subtropics; most found on moist mineral soil of banks and cliffs, among grasses, and along streams, from sea level to alpine elevations.

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