Mushrooms are a very important part of the planet’s plant life. They were the first to colonize the terrestrial environment and, therefore, thanks to them, larger and more complex plants could appear and develop, such as vascular plants. Mosses usually grow on surfaces such as soils, rocks and trees, in addition to being used to decorate interior spaces and, above all, exterior.
If you want to know more about the different types of mosses and their main characteristics, keep reading in this ecology article about What are mosses, their characteristics and examples of species.
What are mosses
Mosses are broyfite non -vascular plants. Non -vascular plants are those that do not have xilems or floe that allow them to distribute water and nutrients due to their structure. However, although they lack these complex structures, some mushrooms do have more basic and simple vascular tissues, with which internally transport the water they collect.
The briophyte plantsIn addition, they are the most important group within Non -vascular plants. These are small plants, which tend to spread in the form of a tapestry along surfaces sometimes quite extensive. They are chlorophyll plants, so that they can perform photosynthesis and owe their color generally green to chlorophyll pigments. The briophyte plants are divided into hepatic, antocers and mosses, which are the group that concerns us.
Learn more about briophyte plants: examples and characteristics with this other ecology article.
Mushroom characteristics
These are the Main characteristics of mosses:
- Mosses, as part of the group of non -vascular plants, are Very primitive plants. They were the first plants to develop in the terrestrial environment along with the ferns.
- They are plants of very small size, because they have no organs that allow them to support large structures, and have a high dependence on environmental and water moisture in the soil or medium to which they grab, since without the latter they cannot reproduce.
- They represent the Evolutionary transition of totally aquatic environment to the terrestrial habitat and currently have about 11,000 species.
- They can develop in a wide variety of habitats, with altitudes from sea level to almost 5,000 meters above this. Despite this, its favorite area is at altitudes between 1,900 and 3,800 meters above sea level, where high humidity levels favor their development.
- They tend to form an important part of the biomass of the environments in which they are found, usually as a taping or mattress, so they exert a very prominent function retaining both water and nutrientsthus preventing the rains or elements of cleaning their soil.
- Its reproduction is sexual, as we explain below.
Mushroom reproduction
Mosses have a sexual reproduction based on two alternate phases: haploid and diploid.
The part of the plant that we usually recognize as moss is the gametophyte, the generation Haploid. In the gametophyte the anteride is developed, which is the male sexual part of the plant, or the archegon, which is the female sexual organ. When the anterity breaks, the archegon fertilizes, which gives way to the phase Diploid of the moss, in which a sporophyte develops. The sporophyte looks like a small capsule at the end of a stem that rises above the moss mantle, looking like a small flower.
This capsule contains The sporeswhich will end up releasing so that water or media transport them to another place, where they will give rise to a protonema, which will grow by forming another gametophyte, thus returning to the haploid predominant phase. Here we explain more about what the spores are.
Habitat of mosses
As we have already mentioned above, mosses need abundant humidity, so they tend to develop in Wet areas and the shadow. They grab the surface with their curls, which are structures such as small roots whose only function is to support them. They form carpets on rocks, mud, wood or on the floor of the great forest masses, being an important part of the underobosque.
They play a very important role in the colonization of land areassince they are next to the lichens the first to populate some areas and create organic matter that will later allow the development of more complex species.
Some mosses can stop their metabolism practically completely in drought conditions, to resume their activity long periods of time later, as soon as they receive water again. They are also Good indicators of air pollutionsince some species are sensitive to this and serve as a marker.
Mushrooms
The Mushroom classification Understand 8 classes: Bryopsida, Takakiopsychosida, Sphagnopsida, Polytrichopsida, Oedipodiopsida, Tetraphidopsida, Andreaeophasida and Andreaeobrypsida.
Within these classes, we find a lot of species or Types of mossessome of them well known in a general way. The most common of these species is the Bryopsida, in which 95% of mosses are encompassed, thus also the most representative of this group of plants. Other mushrooms, such as those belonging to the Sphagnopsida class, commonly known as sphagons, are easy to identify for their particular aspect, reminiscent of that of small crays. It is normal for their appearance to remember them: they are able to absorb their weight in water up to 20 times.
These are some Mushroom names:
- Weymouthia mollis
- Eriopus Remotifolius
- Dendrichum dendroids
- Sphagnum Magellanicum
- Hylocomium Splendens
- Climacium dendroids
- Archidium Alternifolium
- Zygodon Menziesii
- Dicranum Scoparium
- Tortula muralis
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