#gametophyte

[cinnamonfright]

What a gametophyte over here holy

[revretch]

Everyone compares pollen to semen, but it's not the same thing at all.

See, with flowering plants, what you're seeing is the sporophyte. It doesn't actually have sex itself. Instead, plants that have "female" parts have separate little plants growing inside their flowers. These are the female gametophytes, which do have sex.

However, plants with "male" parts don't have male gametophytes in them. Instead, they have pollen, which will become male gametophytes when it gets to a female gametophyte.

In other words, pollen isn't like sperm--it's like an egg with little men in it.

[scolop98]

Revisited some classic posts from @botanyshitposts the other day with a new appreciation for just how bizarre Vittaria appalachiana is.

[chaerea]

Rhizomnium sp. gametophyte by Chaerea Via Flickr:

[cactanna]

fern gametophytes

[indefenseofplants]

Meet The Powder Gun Moss

I get very excited when I am able to identify a new moss. This is mainly due to the fact that moss ID is one of my weakest points. I was sitting down on a rock the other day taking a break from vegetation surveys when I looked to my right and saw something peculiar. The area was pretty sloped and there was some exposed soil in the vicinity. Covering some of that soil was what looked like green fuzz. Embedded in that fuzz were these strange green urns.

I busted out my hand lens and got a closer look. This was definitely a moss but one I had never seen before. The urns turned out to be capsules. Later, a bit of searching revealed this to be a species of moss in the genus Diphyscium. This genus is the largest within the family Diphysciaceae and here in North America, we have two representatives - D. foliosum and D. mucronifolium.

These peculiar mosses have earned themselves the common name 'powder gun moss.' The reason for this lies in those strange sessile capsules. Unlike other mosses that send their capsules up on long, hair-like seta in order to disperse their spores on the faintest of breezes, the Diphyscium capsules remain close to the ground. In lieu of wind, a powder gun moss uses rain. In much the same way puffball mushrooms harness the pounding of raindrops, so too do the capsules of the powder gun moss. Each raindrop that hits a capsule releases a cloud of spores that are ejected into an already humid environment full of germination potential.

Luckily for moss lovers like myself, the two species of Diphyscium here in North America tend to enjoy very different habitats. This makes a positive ID much more likely. D. foliosum prefers to grow on bare soils whereas D. mucronifolium prefers humid rock surfaces. Because of this distinction, I am quite certain the species I encountered is D. foliosum. And what a pleasant encounter it was. Like I said, it isn't often I accurately ID a moss so this genus now holds a special place in my mind.

Further Reading: [1] [2]

[berad995]

Collecting spores! Next step to grow some cute little gametophytes 💚they are literally heart shaped, gotta love alternation of generations! Hopefully after that I'll get some young sporophytes! 💚🌿💚

[revretch]

What's funny about flowering plants is that the big plant you're looking at (sporophyte) is never male, female, or even both. Instead, in its flowers it makes separate, smaller plants (gametophytes) that are themselves male or female--the females are called "ovules," and the males are pollen! These little plants are what actually make sperm and eggs and have sex.

So in other words, plants aren't sexed according to their own sex. They're sexed according to whether they "give birth" to male children, female children, or both.