What moss is different from algae. Species characteristics

The name of mosses and algae, features of their structure and physiology are known to scientists for a long time. In appearance, these plants are very similar. However, they are representatives of completely different systematic units. In this article we will look at how moss differs from algae.

Classification of plants

What only there are no plants in nature! Simply affects the variety of plants: algae, mosses, ferns, gymnosperms, flowering ... Total and not list. However, the taxonomists succeeded in uniting them into different groups on the basis of a set of basic features of the structure.

Comparison of mosses and algae

Why mosses, ferns, algae, lichens are plants? All these organisms are capable of photosynthesis, since they contain chloroplasts in the cells of green plastids. The most primitive of them live in water. These are algae, which are a group of lower plants. Mosses are typical inhabitants of the land. However, their reproduction is possible only in the presence of water. Therefore, they prefer wet places.

Outwardly, algae and mosses are very similar. Therefore, they are often confused. Not all algae grow solely in water. Some of them settle on tree trunks, rock surfaces, wet soil patches, on snow, in the hairline of animals. They form a continuous green cover, like bryophytes. Blue-green algae are able to enter into symbiosis with hyphae of fungi, forming lichens.

Characteristics of lower plants

Algae are called inferior, because their body is a collection of cells (there is no division into the root of the stem and leaves). It is called a decay, a thallus or a thallus. Algae cells are not specialized. They are connected anatomically, but each of them performs similar functions. With the help of rhizoids, algae attach to the substrate. This structure also does not form tissues, so it is not capable of performing a conductive function. And there is no need for it, since the lower ones grow exclusively in water.

Higher spore plants - people on land

Due to climate change, plants had to adapt to the terrestrial environment. The first representatives of this ecological group arose in the Devonian. This is a group of extinct plants, called rhyniophytes. Their prints are well preserved in ancient fossils. These are the first plants in which elements of conductive tissues appeared. Therefore, they are also called vascular. Their ribbed stems forked forked, and instead of roots, rhizoids still remained.

In place of rhinophytes came mosses. Currently, they number about 10 thousand species. The difference between mosses and algae is not only in the habitat. Their life in terrestrial conditions became possible due to a significant complication of the structure. Most of the mosses have a leaf-building structure. In this case, the rhizoids remain in their lifetime.

Structure of mosses

What is the difference between moss and algae? In spore plants, a change of generations is observed in the life cycle. Let us analyze this process using the example of their typical representative of moss kukushkin flax. His sex generation looks like a green carpet. Visually, it resembles some species of algae.

If you look closely, the green cover consists of individual thin stems with sedentary leaves. At the end of summer a capsule on the stem is formed on their apex. This sexless generation is a sporophyte. The shape of the box looks like a cuckoo. Hence the name of this plant.

In a box, asexual reproduction cells mature - spores. When ripe they get enough sleep in the soil and germinate. From the dispute, green leaf-sprout shoots again grow. They form sexual reproduction organs - gametangia. Sex cells, oocytes and spermatozoa, mature in them. In the presence of water, they merge, resulting in a zygote. From it grows sporophyte. Thus, in the life cycle of bryophytes, the sex generation predominates.

Kinds of plants: algae, mosses

Since algae appeared on the planet much earlier, their structure is much more primitive. This does not allow these plants to learn new habitats. To understand what moss differs from algae, it is necessary to consider the features of their organization and processes of life.

Let us begin with the structure of the body. All mosses are exclusively multicellular organisms. Among the algae there are different species. For example, chlamydomonas and chlorella are unicellular. Volvox is a colonial alga. It consists of a group of cells united by a single shell. More complicated are the thalli of chlorella, spirogyra, laminaria, sargassum. They are all multicellular.

Many features of the difference can be found in the features of life of these organisms. Both mosses and algae are capable of sexual reproduction. But in the latter, this process occurs under unfavorable conditions. This is a kind of protection of algae. For example, with a decrease in water temperature or the drying out of a reservoir, the mother cell of chlamydomonas forms gametes.

They go out into the water and merge in pairs. As a result, a zygote is formed - a fertilized egg. It is covered with a thick shell, which allows you to carry it and freezing, and drying. When favorable conditions occur, the content of the zygote is divided, resulting in moving mobile cells of asexual reproduction - zoospores. They increase in size and acquire the features of adult individuals.

So, in this article we have examined what moss differs from algae. The main features are as follows:

• Algae are older plants that originated in the water.
• Mosses - the first people on land.
• Algae can be mono- and multicellular. There are also colonial forms.
• All mosses are multicellular plants, whose body has a leaf-building structure.
• In algae, male and female individuals, sporophyte and gametophyte do not externally differ. And mosses may have differences in their structure.
• Algae can multiply by parts of the thallus. Mosses are not capable of vegetative reproduction.