Editing Embryophyte (section)

===Non-vascular land plants===
{{further|Alternation of generations}}

[[File:Barbula spadicea (Sporenkapseln) IMG 0434.JPG|thumb|Bryophytes, such as these mosses, produce unbranched, stalked sporophytes from which their spores are released.]]

The non-vascular land plants, namely the [[moss]]es (Bryophyta), [[hornwort]]s (Anthocerotophyta), and [[liverwort]]s (Marchantiophyta), are relatively small plants, often confined to environments that are humid or at least seasonally moist. They are limited by their reliance on water needed to disperse their [[gamete]]s; a few are truly aquatic. Most are tropical, but there are many arctic species. They may locally dominate the ground cover in [[tundra]] and [[Arctic–alpine]] habitats or the epiphyte flora in rain forest habitats.

They are usually studied together because of their many similarities. All three groups share a [[haploid]]-dominant ([[gametophyte]]) life cycle and unbranched [[sporophyte]]s (the plant's [[diploid]] [[Alternation of generations|generation]]). These traits appear to be common to all early diverging lineages of non-vascular plants on the land. Their life-cycle is strongly dominated by the haploid gametophyte generation. The sporophyte remains small and dependent on the parent gametophyte for its entire brief life. All other living groups of land plants have a life cycle dominated by the diploid sporophyte generation. It is in the diploid sporophyte that vascular tissue develops. In some ways, the term "non-vascular" is a misnomer. Some mosses and liverworts do produce a special type of vascular tissue composed of complex water-conducting cells.<ref name="Brodribb-2020">{{Cite journal |last=Brodribb |first=T. J. |last2=Carriquí |first2=M. |last3=Delzon |first3=S. |last4=McAdam |first4=S. A. M. |last5=Holbrook |first5=N. M. |date=2020-03-09 |title=Advanced vascular function discovered in a widespread moss |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-020-0602-x |journal=Nature Plants |language=en |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=273–279 |doi=10.1038/s41477-020-0602-x |issn=2055-0278|url-access=subscription }}</ref> However, this tissue differs from that of "vascular" plants in that these water-conducting cells are not lignified.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Renault |first=Hugues |last2=Alber |first2=Annette |last3=Horst |first3=Nelly A. |last4=Basilio Lopes |first4=Alexandra |last5=Fich |first5=Eric A. |last6=Kriegshauser |first6=Lucie |last7=Wiedemann |first7=Gertrud |last8=Ullmann |first8=Pascaline |last9=Herrgott |first9=Laurence |last10=Erhardt |first10=Mathieu |last11=Pineau |first11=Emmanuelle |last12=Ehlting |first12=Jürgen |last13=Schmitt |first13=Martine |last14=Rose |first14=Jocelyn K. C. |last15=Reski |first15=Ralf |date=2017-03-08 |title=A phenol-enriched cuticle is ancestral to lignin evolution in land plants |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14713 |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=8 |issue=1 |doi=10.1038/ncomms14713 |issn=2041-1723 |pmc=5344971 |pmid=28270693}}</ref> It is unlikely that the water-conducting cells in mosses are homologous with the vascular tissue in "vascular" plants.<ref name="Brodribb-2020" /> 

Like the vascular plants, they have differentiated stems, and although these are most often no more than a few centimeters tall, they provide mechanical support. Most have leaves, although these typically are one cell thick and lack veins. They lack true roots or any deep anchoring structures. Some species grow a filamentous network of horizontal stems, but these have a primary function of mechanical attachment rather than extraction of soil nutrients (Palaeos 2008).