3.1 ANTHOCEROS: gametophytic feature of anthoceros
Answers
Anthoceros is a genus of hornworts in the family Anthocerotaceae. The genus is global in its distribution. Its name means 'flower horn', and refers to the characteristic horn-shaped sporophytes that all hornworts produce.
AnthocerosAnthoceros agrestisScientific classificationKingdom:PlantaeDivision:AnthocerotophytaClass:AnthocerotopsidaOrder:AnthocerotalesFamily:AnthocerotaceaeGenus:Anthoceros
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Explanation:
Species of Anthoceros are characterized by having a small to medium-sized, green thallus that is more or less lobed along the margins.[1] The spores are dark gray, dark brown or black, this is the easiest way to distinguish Anthoceros from the related genus Phaeoceros, which produces spores that are yellow.[1][2]
The sporophytes of Anthoceros are larger and much more complex than those of Riccia, Marchantia, and Pellia. It is differentiated into a foot, a constriction like intermediate zone and a capsule. There is no seta. It arises in clusters from the dorsal surface of the thallus each surrounded at the base a tubular involucre.
Anthoceros species are host to species of Nostoc, a symbiotic relationship in which Nostoc provides nitrogen to its host through cells known as heterocysts, and which are able to carry out photosynthesis.[3] The Nostoc colonies are present on the lower ventral surface and are visible as blue-green patches which open outwards by slime pores.
This hornwort grows in moist clay soils on hills, in ditches, and in damp hollows among rocks. The adult plant body is a gametophyte.