Non-vascular plant

Short description: Plant without a vascular system

Green algae are a type of non-vascular plant.

Non-vascular plants are plants without a vascular system consisting of xylem and phloem. Instead, they may possess simpler tissues that have specialized functions for the internal transport of water.

Non-vascular plants include two distantly related groups:

* Bryophytes, an informal group that taxonomists (As of 2020 ) treat as three separate land-plant divisions, namely: Bryophyta (mosses), Marchantiophyta (liverworts), and Anthocerotophyta (hornworts). In all bryophytes, the primary plants are the haploid gametophytes, with the only diploid portion being the attached sporophyte, consisting of a stalk and sporangium. Because these plants lack lignified water-conducting tissues, they can't become as tall as most vascular plants.
* Algae, especially the green algae. The algae consist of several unrelated groups. Only the groups included in the Viridiplantae are still considered relatives of land plants.[1]:6[2]

These groups are sometimes called "lower plants", referring to their status as the earliest plant groups to evolve, but the usage is imprecise, since both groups are polyphyletic and may be used to include vascular cryptogams, such as the ferns and fern allies that reproduce using spores. Non-vascular plants are often among the first species to move into new and inhospitable territories, along with prokaryotes and protists, and thus function as pioneer species.

Non-vascular plants do not have a wide variety of specialized tissue types. Mosses and leafy liverworts have structures called phyllids that resemble leaves, but only consist of single sheets of cells with no internal air spaces, no cuticle or stomata, and no xylem or phloem. Consequently, phyllids are unable to control the rate of water loss from their tissues and are said to be poikilohydric. Some liverworts, such as Marchantia, have a cuticle, and the sporophytes of mosses have both cuticles and stomata, which were important in the evolution of land plants.[3]

All land plants have a life cycle with an alternation of generations between a diploid sporophyte and a haploid gametophyte, but in all non-vascular land plants the gametophyte generation is dominant. In these plants, the sporophytes grow from and are dependent on gametophytes for taking in water and mineral nutrients and for provision of photosynthate, the products of photosynthesis.

## References

1. ↑ Copeland, H.F. (1956). The classification of lower organisms. Palo Alto: Pacific Books. https://archive.org/details/classificationof00cope.
2. ↑ Adl, S.M. (2005). "The new higher level classification of eukaryotes with emphasis on the taxonomy of protists". Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 52 (5): 399–451. doi:10.1111/j.1550-7408.2005.00053.x. PMID 16248873.
3. ↑ Glime (April 19, 2015). "WATER RELATIONS: PLANT STRATEGIES". http://www.bryoecol.mtu.edu/chapters/7-3WaterStratPlant.pdf.

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Botany

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* Plant systematics
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* Algae
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(glossary)

| Plant cells|

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|

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Classification of Archaeplastida / Plantae sensu lato

Domain
Archaea
Bacteria
Eukaryota
(Supergroup
Plant
Hacrobia
Heterokont
Alveolata
Rhizaria
Excavata
Amoebozoa
Opisthokonta

Animal
Fungi)

Rhodophyta
(red algae)|

* Cyanidiophyceae
* Porphyridiophyceae
* Compsopogonophyceae
* Stylonematophyceae
* Rhodellophyceae
* Bangiophyceae
* Florideophyceae

Glaucocystophyta
(glaucophytes)|

* Glaucocystophyceae
* Glaucocystis
* Cyanophora
* Gloeochaete

Viridiplantae
(green algae,
& land plants)|

| M+C+S|

* Mesostigmatophyceae
* Chlorokybophyceae
* Spirotaenia

|

C+S|

| Chlorophyta
(prasinophytes)|

* Mamiellophyceae
* Nephrophyceae
* Palmophyllales
* Prasinophyceae
* Pseudoscourfieldiales
* Pyramimonadophyceae
* Scourfieldiales
* Pedinophyceae
* Chlorodendrophyceae
* UTC clade
* Ulvophyceae
* Trebouxiophyceae
* Chlorophyceae

|

Streptophyta
(charophytes,
& land plants)|

* Klebsormidiophyceae

Phragmo-
plastophyta|

* Charophyceae
* Coleochaetophyceae
* Zygnematophyceae
* Mesotaeniaceae

Embryophyta
(land plants)|

| Bryophytes
(non-vascular)|

* Marchantiophyta
* Anthocerotophyta
* Bryophyta "Moss"
* †Horneophytopsida

|

Tracheophyta
(vascular)|

| Lycopodiophyta
(microphylls)|

* †Zosterophyllopsida
* †Sawdoniales
* Isoetopsida
* Lycopodiopsida

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Euphyllophyta
(megaphylls)|

| Polypodiopsida
(ferns)|

* †Cladoxylopsida
* †Stauropteridales
* †Zygopteridales
* Equisetidae
* Ophioglossidae
* Marattiidae
* Polypodiidae

|

Spermatophyta
(seed plants)|

* †Seed ferns
* Gymnosperms
* Gnetopsida
* Pinopsida
* Cycadopsida
* Ginkgoopsida
* Angiosperms or flowering plants
* Amborellales
* Nymphaeales
* Austrobaileyales
* Magnoliids
* Monocots
* Eudicots

Other|

* †Trimerophytopsida
* †Progymnosperm

Other|

* †Rhyniopsida

† = extinct. See also the list of plant orders.

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