Title: Life Cycle - in a nutshell - bryophyte
Headings: Life cycle
Life cycle
... life cycle in a nutshell.
Spore to protonema
The following stylized diagrams show some of the variations.
Further gametophyte growth
Some interesting links

Content: The third point to not is that a great many organisms show haploid and diploid states. In humans the haploid state is confined to egg and sperm cells and these are incapable of an independent existence. In the flowering plants the eggs and pollen constitute the haploid state and are also not capable of independent existence. Humans and flowering plants are examples of diploid-dominant organisms. By contrast, in bryophytes the haploid state is capable of independent existence and is typically much longer-lived than the sporophyte state. Bryophytes are examples of haploid-dominant organisms. The rest of this page is devoted mostly to the subject of gametophyte development, from spore through to the leafy or thallose stage. This page finishes with some interesting web links. There is a separate SPOROPHYTE DEVELOPMENT page. Spore to protonema
Germinating Funaria spore
Upon germination a spore typically produces a short, filamentous outgrowth called a germ tube.