Plant Kingdom – Bryophytes: NEET MCQs with Answers

Explanation: Species of Sphagnum, a bog moss, accumulate in waterlogged acidic conditions and are only partly decomposed, forming peat. Peat has long been used as fuel and, because of its water-holding capacity, as packing material.

Explanation: The peristome functions in the dispersal of spores. It consists of rings of tooth-like projections at the rim of the moss capsule; in Funaria there are 32 peristome teeth arranged in two rings of 16 each — an outer exostome and an inner endostome — which are hygroscopic and regulate spore release.

Explanation: The capsule of Funaria is differentiated into the operculum (a cap-shaped lid at the top), the theca (the middle fertile part containing spores) and the apophysis — the sterile, solid basal portion of the capsule that bears chloroplasts and is present at the lower part of the capsule.

Explanation: Of the options given, moss has the largest gametophyte; the size is progressively reduced in the order Selaginella, Cycas, angiosperms. As one moves from thallophytes → bryophytes → pteridophytes → gymnosperms → angiosperms, the sporophyte becomes more elaborate while the gametophyte becomes increasingly reduced.

Explanation: Bryophytes consist of a thalloid body attached to the substratum by hair-like rhizoids (true roots are absent). They produce spores and form an embryo, but they lack vascular tissue (xylem and phloem) and never form seeds; they also require water at the time of fertilisation.

Explanation: The protonema represents the juvenile stage of the moss Funaria. It is a much-branched, green, filamentous structure formed by the germination of spores under favourable conditions, and it bears slender rhizoids and lateral buds that grow into new leafy moss gametophores.

Explanation: The truly unique feature of bryophytes is the retention of the sporophyte attached to the independent gametophyte, on which it is partially or fully dependent. Spore production occurs in many groups, and absence of roots and vascular tissue is also seen in algae, so these are not unique to bryophytes.

Explanation: In bryophytes the sporophyte is organically attached to and nutritionally dependent upon the gametophyte — it is a partial parasite. The gametophyte is the independent, dominant, photosynthetic phase, exactly the reverse of the situation in pteridophytes and higher plants.

Explanation: Bryophyta is called the amphibian group of the plant kingdom, because although its members complete their vegetative phase on land, they still depend on external water for sexual reproduction, just as amphibians depend on water for breeding.

Explanation: Bryophytes are the first land plants and occur in damp, shady habitats, but the precise reason for calling them amphibians is that water is indispensable for their reproductive phase — a layer of water is required for the maturation and dehiscence of the sex organs and as the medium for the transfer of sperm to the archegonium.

Explanation: Marchantia is the classic liverwort showing the elater mechanism: its capsule encloses spores together with elaters bearing spiral thickenings, whose twisting movements liberate and disperse the spores. Riccia, though a liverwort, lacks elaters, and Funaria is a moss.

Explanation: Bryophytes are called the amphibians of the plant kingdom because they are terrestrial plants of simple internal organisation, yet they still require a thin film of water on the surface of their substratum for sexual reproduction, since their motile antherozoids must swim to the archegonium.

Explanation: In Marchantia, the capsule contains diploid elaters along with haploid spores in tetrads. The elaters are spindle-shaped, hygroscopic, elongated structures with two spiral bands; their twisting movements on maturity assist in loosening and dispersing the spores. Riccia has no elaters, and mosses use peristome teeth instead.

Explanation: Only some bryophytes — the mosses such as Funaria and Polytrichum — possess multicellular branched rhizoids together with a leafy gametophore. Liverworts such as Marchantia and Riccia have a thalloid body with unicellular rhizoids, so the feature is not common to all bryophytes.

Explanation: The decisive difference is that bryophytes possess multicellular sex organs — the archegonium being a flask-shaped female organ covered by an outer jacket of sterile cells — whereas algal sex organs are unicellular and lack such a sterile jacket. Thalloid organisation, absence of conducting tissue and possession of chloroplasts are shared with algae.