AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Non-vascular plants are plants without a vascular system consisting of xylem and phloem. Instead, they may possess simpler tissues that have specialized functions for the internal transport of water.

Detailed explanation-2: -Mosses, liverworts and hornworts are collectively called “bryophytes.” Bryophytes are nonvascular plants: They do not have special tissues-tissues that botanists call “xylem” and “phloem”-to transport fluids and nutrients internally. Additionally, bryophytes do not produce flowers and seeds.

Detailed explanation-3: -Mosses and liverworts are small, primitive, non-vascular plants. They lack the conductive tissue most plants use to transport water and nutrients. Instead, moisture is absorbed directly into cells by osmosis.

Detailed explanation-4: -Nonvascular plants (often referred to collectively as the bryophytes) include three groups: the mosses (Bryophyta), approximately 15, 000 species; liverworts (Hepaticophyta), approximately 7500 species; and hornworts (Anthocerophyta), approximately 250 species (Table 1).

Detailed explanation-5: -Nonvascular plants do not possess any special organs for the absorption and transport of water; instead, the plant cells absorb water and nutrients from their wet surroundings at their surface by diffusion and pass them from cell to cell.