Question

Differentiate between Liverworts and Mosses.

Answer 1

Hint: The Marchantiophyta is a classification of non-vascular land plants commonly known as the hepatics or liverworts. Mosses, or also known as the Bryophytes, are small, which are characterized by the absence of vesicles and flowerless plants that normally form dense green clusters or mats, most frequently in damp and moist or shady regions.

Complete answer: Liverworts can be distinguished from the other mosses by their single-celled rhizoids. Other differences are not much common for all mosses and liverworts, but the nonexistence of clearly differentiated stem and leaves in those species, or leafy species the presence of deeply lobed or segmented leaves, and the presence of leaves arranged in three ranks. Mosses do not have seeds and after fertilization develops sporophytes with unbranched stalks topped with single capsules containing spores.

Liverworts	Mosses
Liverworts are non-vascular plants consisting of leaf-like lobes or stems.These plants belong to the classification of Marchantiophyta.The gametophyte is thallose.Dorsiventral or radial.Rhizoids are unicellular.Protonemata are reduced.Leaf-like structures are arranged in two or three rows in a flattened pattern.	Mosses are non-vascular plants consisting of leafy stems.These plants belong to the classification of Bryophyte.The gametophyte is foliose.Radial.Rhizoids are pluricellular.Produce prominent protonemata.Leaf-like structures are arranged in a spiral or whorl.

Note: Unlike any other embryophytes, most liverworts contain exclusive membrane-bound oil bodies containing isoprenoids in at least some of their cells, lipid dewdrops in the cytoplasm of all other plants being unenclosed. Mosses are nonvascular plants in the land plant division Bryophyta. They are small herbaceous (non-woody) plants that absorb water and nutrients chiefly through their leaves and produce carbon dioxide and sunlight to generate food by photosynthesis.