Moss (Plantae), Characteristics and Benefits.

In this world, plants are very rich in diversity, millions of types of plants (kingdom Plantae) even billions that live on earth. That is proof of the greatness of God Almighty. One of the interesting plants is the moss plant. Most plants have many benefits for life on earth, these plants are also often referred to as pioneer plants, which are pioneer plants. For more details, see the explanation of the following article:

A. Characteristics of Moss:

Most plants are autotrophic plants, namely plants that require light because they already have chlorophyll. Moss plants in all places, such as trees, soil, walls, and so on. The body shape of a small moss plant still does not have true stems and roots, the leaves are arranged in a spiral. At the base of the stem, there is a branched rhizoid that serves as a root.

Moss undergoes metagenesis in its life, namely alternation of generations. In its life, mosses undergo two phases in their life cycle, namely the gametophyte (haploid) phase, and the sporophyte (diploid) phase. The reproductive organs of mosses are antheridium, which are male mosses, and archegonium, which are female reproductive organs of mosses.

In the life cycle of mosses, such as leaf mosses, the gametophyte generation is the dominant generation, while the sporophyte generation has a shorter life. The sporophyte generation can produce spores by meiosis and the structure and sporangium. Spores that spread will develop into a new gametophyte generation. It can be seen in the following chart:

Most plants are also often referred to as pioneer plants because a hard place like a rock before other plants is overgrown by moss plants. The moss plant will destroy the rock little by little until it finally becomes soil so that other plants can live in that place.

B. Various kinds of moss

Moss is found all around us, where moss lives are usually soft places. Moss consists of several kinds that live on earth, namely as follows:

1. Moss Leaf

Leaf moss has a spiral leaf shape and rezoid stems that function as roots. The antheridia and archegonium are separate. Pseudo body and trunk. Leaf moss lives are wet places such as walls, stones, wood, and so on.

2. Liver Moss

Liverworts have the shape of a sheet - a smooth sheet without a stem or base. This moss is found in various parts of the earth, for example, on cliffs on the ground, water, and so on

This moss is divided into two, namely Ricciocarpus sp and Marchantia sp.

a.Ricciocarpus sp

Life floating in the water, its life cycle is in the sporophyte generation.

b. The body of this moss has sheets (thallus)

His life stuck to the ground, wet cliffs, walls, and so on. Below there are rhizoids that are used for attaching and sucking water and nutrients that do not have stems and leaves. This liverwort reproduces generatively and vegetatively. Sexual reproduction is by forming male gametes (antheridium) and female gametes (archegonium) while vegetative reproduction forms gemma and buds.

3. horn moss

This moss is often found in rivers, ditches, and lakes, this moss undergoes offspring. Between the sporophyte phase and the gametophyte phase. The sporophyte vase forms a horn-like capsule, an example of this moss is: Anthoceros sp.

C. Benefits of moss

Everything in this world must have a benefit, so does moss. Moss is very useful for this world, for example, peat moss. This moss is very useful for the earth, the following are some of the benefits of moss for life:

1. Reducing the greenhouse effect.

The first benefit of moss is to reduce the greenhouse effect. Peat moss mostly covers the earth up to 30%, usually on peatlands. Most of it is at the North Pole covering to have a very large thickness. Peat moss is able to bind carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere so that the greenhouse effect in the earth's atmosphere is reduced.

2. Oxygen generator.

Moss is a plant that already has chlorophyll in each cell so that moss can carry out the process of photosynthesis and produce oxygen that is beneficial for humans and other animals.

3. Farm food

The next benefit of moss is fodder, especially fish. Moss can be used as food for fish and shrimp ponds. Thus the explanation of the moss (Plantae), the characteristics and benefits. If there are wrong words and writing, the author apologizes. Criticisms and suggestions can be written in the comments.

By: isanggar