HOLISTIC EDUCATION and DEVELOPMENTCENTER
The Little Farm House
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL – GRADE SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
HY 2015 – 2016
Score: ____ / 35
BIOLOGY 6
FIRST TRIMESTER
Parent’s Signature:
Activity Sheet # 4: Nonvascular Plants
NAME: _______________________________________
LEVEL & SECTION: ______________________________
DATE DUE: _______________
DATE SUBMITTED: _______________
We begin going into the details of each plant type by reviewing the over-all picture. Again, make an
effort to memorize the following diagram. The shaded part is what we will learn about in this lesson.
PLANTS
Vascular
Non-vascular (Bryophytes)
Moss
Plants with seeds
Liverwort
Seedless plants (Pteridophytes)
Gymnosperm
Angiosperm
Fern
Whisk fern
Hornwort
Conifer
Monocot
Cycad
Dicot
Horsetail
Clubmoss
Gnetophyte
Gingko
What are bryophytes?
Nonvascular plants are also known as bryophytes. Their
name comes from two Greek words- bruon which means
moss and phuton which means plant. Literally
translated, a bryophyte is a moss plant. Bryophytes are
nonvascular plants which means they don’t have xylem
or phloem. They are small herbaceous plants that grow
closely packed together in mats or cushions on rocks, soil
or on the trunks and leaves of trees. Herbaceous plants
are plants with soft, juicy bodies. The opposite of
herbaceous is woody which is used to describe plants
with hard bodies (mostly trees). Plants that grow on
other plants are called epiphytic (see Figure 1 at right).
Figure 1. The trees near mountain tops in the
tropics are usually heavily covered in
epiphytic bryophytes. This is why such
forests are called mossy forests
(answers.com).
ENGLISH QUEST! Write the capital letter corresponding to the keyword that BEST
completes the following statements. (5 pts)
KEYWORD BANK:
(A) bryophytes, (B) epiphytic, (C) herbaceous, (D) phloem, (E) woody
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Most weeds are easily cut down by our lawn mower because they are _____.
I love to climb large trees. I know the branches won’t break because they are _____.
The old narra tree in our backyard is covered with lots of _____ mosses and ferns.
Nonvascular plants, also known as _____, do not have any vascular system.
The vascular system of plants is composed of xylem and _____.
Do bryophytes have leaves, stems and roots?
Bryophytes do not have leaves, stems nor roots. Instead they have much simpler body parts called
rhizoids, caulids, and phyllids. Let’s find out what these are.
Rhizoid – A bryophyte doesn’t have
true roots. Instead it has numerous
rhizoids that help anchor it in place.
Though it doesn’t have any vascular
system, the rhizoids can also absorb
water and minerals from the soil (or
rock, or tree leaves or trunks) but they
cannot transport them over long
distances. This is why bryophytes are
very small plants.
Figure 2. A mat of moss plants. Note the individual moss plants
(teresasplants.com).
Phyllid
Caulid
Rhizoid
A mat of mosses may look large (Figure 2 above) but
it is actually composed of hundreds of very small
plants each with a mass of rhizoids growing at its base
(Figure 3 at left).
Caulid – The caulid is the stem of the bryophyte. This
is very short and completely covered with phyllids
(the leaves of the bryophyte). The vertical “stalks” in
Figure 3 are the caulids. The base of the caulid is
where the rhizomes are attached.
Figure 3. Individual moss plants with rhizoids
(palaeos.com).
Phyllid – The phyllids are the leaves of the
bryophyte plant. They are very small and are
made of only one layer of cells (Figure 4 at
right).
Figure 4. The phyllids (leaves) of a moss plant are made of
one layer of cells (plantsaretherealist.tumblr.com).
How do bryophytes reproduce?
Just like pteridophytes, bryophytes do not produce
flowers or seeds. Instead, they reproduce through
spores. Bryophyte spores are enclosed in capsules
which are like submarine periscopes peeking out of
the plant leaves (Figure 5 at left).
Figure 5. The reddish-brown structures are called
capsules. They are full of spores used by
bryophytes to reproduce (en.wikipedia.org).
What are liverworts and hornworts?
So far, we’ve been talking only of mosses as examples of bryophytes. Now, we talk about two other
bryophytes called liverworts and hornworts.
Liverworts
Liverworts (Figure 6 at right) have a name that
literally means “a small plant that looks like liver.”
The resemblance to the liver can be seen in the
fact that the leaves of the liverwort are lobed just
like the liver. In fact, during olden times, people
used liverwort plants as herbal medicines for liver
diseases.
Figure 6. Liverworts have lobed leaves that look like liver
(sicence.halleyhosting.com).
Hornworts
Hornworts get their name because of tall, narrow
structures growing on top of the plant (Figure 7
at left). These “horns” contain the spores and
are similar to the capsules in mosses.
Figure 7. The tall, narrow structures give the hornwort its
name (ucmp.berkeley.edu).
ART ATTACK! Try your skill at coloring by making the following drawings come alive!
You will also need to label the plants. Can you tell which one is the moss, the
liverwort, and the hornwort? Write their names on the blanks provided. The images
are from (left) pinterest.com; (center) behance.net; (right) msnucleus.org; and
(clipart) from picgifs.com. (15 pts).
AMAZEing CHALLENGE!
Can you find your way out of this? Remember to pass through all the KEYWORDS but
none of the walls. Good luck maze runner! (15 pts)
spore
capsule
moss
hornwort
xylem
rhizoid
nonvascular
bryophyte
phyllid
phloem
caulid
liverwort
woody
epiphytic
herbaceous
NOTE: An online version (in full color) is available at hedcenscience.wordpress.com to facilitate learning. Please note that
such online material is copyrighted.
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