Word Roots
-angio = vessel (gametangia: the reproductive organ of bryophytes, consisting of the male antheridium and female archegonium; a multichambered jacket of sterile cells in which gametes are formed)
bryo- = moss; -phyte = plant (bryophytes: the mosses, liverworts, and hornworts; a group of nonvascular plants that inhabit the land but lack many of the terrestrial adaptations of vascular plants)
gymno- = naked; -sperm = seed (gymnosperm: a vascular plant that bears naked seeds not enclosed in any specialized chambers)
hetero- = different; -sporo = a seed (heterosporous: referring to plants in which the sporophyte produces two kinds of spores that develop into unisexual gametophytes, either female or male)
homo- = like (homosporous: referring to plants in which a single type of spore develops into a bisexual gametophyte having both male and female sex organs)
mega- = large (megaspores: a spore from a heterosporous plant that develops into a female gametophyte bearing archegonia)
micro- = small; -phyll = leaf (microphylls: the small leaves of lycophytes that have only a single, unbranched vein)
peri- = around; -stoma = mouth (peristome: the upper part of the moss capsule often specialized for gradual spore discharge)
-phore = bearer (gametophore: the mature gamete-producing structure of a gametophyte body of a moss)
phragmo- = a partition; -plast = formed, molded (phragmoplast: an alignment of cytoskeletal elements and Golgi-derived vesicles across the midline of a dividing plant cell)
proto- = first; -nema = thread (protonema: a mass of green, branched, one-cell-thick filaments produced by germinating moss spores)
pter- = fern (pterophytes: seedless plants with true roots with lignified vascular tissue; the group includes ferns, whisk ferns, and horsetails)
rhizo- = root; -oid = like, form (rhizoids: long tubular single cells or filaments of cells that anchor bryophytes to the ground)
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