Algae are chlorophyll bearing thallophytes including vast assemblage of plants with high diversities in occurrence, morphology, vegetative and reproductive phases of life etc.
The term bryophyta is used as a collective name to represent a group of plants that includes the mosses (musci), hornworts and liverworts (Hepaticae) growing predominantly in amphibious environment.
Resemblance Between The Algae and The Bryophytes
The bryophytes and the green algae have much in common at the level of the cell structure and metabolic pathways. The feature in which the algae resemble the bryophytes are:
1. Thallus like plant body.
2. Absence of vascular tissue (xylem and phloem).
3. Autotrophic mode of nutrition.
4.Conspicuous plant in the life cycle being the gametophyte.
5. Absence of roots.
6. Retention of the swimming habit by the sperms which indicates the algal ancestry of the bryophytes.
7. The early stages of the development in the gametophyte of many bryophytes are green filaments which strikingly resemble the filamentous thallus of green algae.
8. The chloroplast pigments in the vegetative cells of bryophytes are identical with those of green algae.
9. The carbohydrate food reserve material in both bryophytes and green algae is true starch.
10.The structure and composition of the cell wall is identical in both the bryophytes and the green algae. It consists of a wall layer containing cellulose surrounded by a pectic wall layer containing galacturonic acid.
