Title: evolution - Why is one phase of a plant dominant (Alternation of generation)? - Biology Stack Exchange
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Why is one phase of a plant dominant (Alternation of generation)?
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edited Jul 12 '19 at 16:50
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Short answer: Many of the evolutionary developments in plants developed in the sporophyte life stage. Because increased fitness of these increasingly sporophyte-"dominant" plants would result in a greater survival and reproductive success, these plants became more dominant than the more-limited gametophyte-dominant early plants. In other words, natural selection of the fittest plants (which happen to have sporophyte traits increasingly adapated for living on land) likely led to the dominance in the sporophyte life stage. Long Answer: I would suspect this is due to the evolutionary advantages that are associated with the sporophyte life stage in land plants. Multiple advantages developed in the sporophyte stage of plants as they evolved from simple gametophyte-dominant bryophyte ancestors to the vast array of much more successful and dominant ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms. Shift from gametophyte-dominated life cycle (in bryophytes) to sporophyte-dominated life cycle. Source: Cengage Learning (2016)
Evolutionary developments that have occurred across almost 500 million years in land plants include the development of stomata, true leaves, pollen and seeds, and flowers and fruits.