Mosses are non-flowering plants which produce spores and have stems and leaves, but don't have true roots. Mosses, and their cousins liverworts and hornworts, are classified as Bryophyta (bryophytes) in the plant kingdom. They date back 450 million years, and have survived and thrived through a range of drastic climate changes. Comprised of 15,000 – 25,000 species, they occur on every continent and in every ecosystem habitable by plants that use sunlight for energy. Among the world of plants, the bryophytes are the second most diverse group exceeded only by the angiosperms, the flowering plants (350,000 species).
Unlike most other plants, mosses don’t have roots. Instead they have rhizoids, which are small hairlike structures. Their main function is anchoring the plant to rock, bark or soil. So without roots, some moss suck nutrients up through the rhizoids and others draw in moisture and minerals from rain and the water around them through their highly absorbent surfaces. Continue reading from Kew Gardens
Plants are a kingdom of life forms that includes familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns and mosses. Through photosynthesis, they convert water and carbon dioxide into the oxygen we breathe and the sugars that provide the primary fuel for life. Through nitrogen fixation, plants generate proteins that are basic building blocks of life. Early fossil records of photosynthesizing organisms date from about 3 billion years ago. Continue reading from The Center for Biological Diversity
