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 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. In between there is typically the part that will become the stalk (or seta) that supports the spore capsule, though in a number of bryophytes the seta is short or even non-existent. By the time the sporophyte has matured the spore capsule will contain haploid spores. The following diagram gives one example of a bryophyte life cycle, that of the moss Funaria hygrometrica. Print this diagram as an A4 PDF
The spores produced in a spore capsule are the result of SEXUAL REPRODUCTION. Bryophytes are adept at VEGETATIVE REPRODUCTION and vegetative propagules often produce protonemata rather than developing directly into the leafy or thalloid gametophytic stage.