Title: Bryophyte | plant | Britannica
Headings: Bryophyte
Bryophyte
plant
General features

Content: In most vascular plants, however, the gametophyte is dependent on the sporophyte. In bryophytes the long-lived and conspicuous generation is the gametophyte, while in vascular plants it is the sporophyte. Structures resembling stems, roots, and leaves are found on the gametophore of bryophytes, while these structures are found on the sporophytes in the vascular plants. The sporophyte releases spores, from which the gametophytes ultimately develop. moss life cycle
Life cycle of moss. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The gametophyte of some bryophyte species reproduces asexually, or vegetatively, by specialized masses of cells ( gemmae) that are usually budded off and ultimately give rise to gametophytes. Fragmentation of the gametophyte also results in vegetative reproduction: each living fragment has the potential to grow into a complete gametophyte. The mature gametophyte of most mosses is leafy in appearance, but some liverworts and hornworts have a flattened gametophyte, called a thallus. The thallus tends to be ribbonlike in form and is often compressed against the substratum to which it is generally attached by threadlike structures called rhizoids.