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: Each parent has contributed one set of chromosomes. A bryophyte spore germinates and produces an often algal-like mat, called a protonema (plural protonemata) and the leafy or thalloid stage of the gametophyte develops from the protonemal stage. The protonemata are almost always ephemeral but there are exceptions. Amongst the mosses there is a small number of species in which the protonemata are persistent and the leafy plants are ephemeral. The spore was haploid and so are the resulting protonema and the ensuing leafy or thalloid stages. The male and female sex organs, the antheridia and the archegonia respectively, are produced on the gametophytic plants. Haploid sperm are released from the antheridia and when a haploid sperm reaches a haploid egg in an archegonium the egg is fertilized to produce a diploid cell. This cell will develop into the diploid sporophyte. In a great many bryophytes the tissue in the embryonic sporophyte differentiates. Typically there will be a foot, that anchors the embryonic sporophyte to the supporting gametophyte, and at the end opposite the foot is the part that will develop into the spore capsule.