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Concept
Embryophyte
Summary
The Embryophyta (ˌɛmbriˈɒfətə,_-oʊˈfaɪtə), or land plants, are the most familiar group of green plants that comprise vegetation on Earth. Embryophytes (ˈɛmbriəˌfaɪts) have a common ancestor with green algae, having emerged within the Phragmoplastophyta clade of green algae as sister of the Zygnematophyceae. The Embryophyta consist of the bryophytes plus the polysporangiophytes. Living embryophytes therefore include hornworts, liverworts, mosses, lycophytes, ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants. The land plants have diplobiontic life cycles and it is accepted now that they emerged from freshwater, multi-celled algae.
The embryophytes are informally called land plants because they live primarily in terrestrial habitats (with exceptional members who evolved to live once again in aquatic habitats), while the related green algae are primarily aquatic. Embryophytes are complex multicellular eukaryotes with specialized reproductive organs. The name derives from their innovative characteristic of nurturing the young embryo sporophyte during the early stages of its multicellular development within the tissues of the parent gametophyte. With very few exceptions, embryophytes obtain their energy by photosynthesis, that is by using the energy of sunlight to synthesize their food from carbon dioxide and water.
The Embryophytes emerged a half-billion years ago, at some time in the interval between the mid-Cambrian and early Ordovician, probably from terrestrial multicellular charophytes, a clade of green algae similar to extant Klebsormidiophyceae. The emergence of the Embryophytes depleted atmospheric CO2 (a greenhouse gas), leading to global cooling, and thereby precipitating glaciations. Embryophytes are primarily adapted for life on land, although some are secondarily aquatic. Accordingly, they are often called land plants or terrestrial plants.
On a microscopic level, the cells of charophytes are broadly similar to those of chlorophyte green algae, but differ in that in cell division the daughter nuclei are separated by a phragmoplast.
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