I DONT GET A BIT OF THIS!!! PlEASE HELP TEST TOMOROW????

Question

Ok this is about reproduction in mosses - can you just tell me what this means??

When the zygote germinates, it produes a diploid sporophyte. As it grows, the sporophyte is supplied with water and nutrients by the gametophyte. Moss sporophytes cannot live independent of the gametophyte. Moss sporophytes cannot live independent of the gamtophyte from which they grow. This is one way in which bryophytes differ from all other land plans. The mature sporophyte is composed of a "foot" that remains stuck in the gametophyte - a long stalk - and a capsule that looks like a salt shaker. Inside the capsule, haploid spores are produced by meiosis. When the capsule ripens, special pores- and in some cases the whole top of the capsule - open. The spores are shaken out, to be carried off by wind and water.

THANKS SOOO MUCH 4 READIN!

Answer 1

Unlike us, who exist most of our life as a diploid creature (we are haploid as gametes til fertilization builds a zygote), moss lives its life in two stages haploid and diploid.

Moss in the above example is going into the diploid stage. Fertilization has occurred producing the zygote. A zygote is two gametes merged. This grows but remains attached to female parent (the gametophyte) and is fed by its mother. "Moss sporophytes cannot live independent of the gamtophyte from which they grow. This is one way in which bryophytes differ from all other land plants."
Other plants do not feed their sexually produced offspring. Plants produce runners, cloned offspring, they'll feed these through the runner, but this is vegetative reproduction not sexual.
Back to the moss. We now hear about the sporophytes figure. Foot to capsule. The foot is like the umbilical cord and the capsule is like ovaries or gonads, it produces gametes same way we do. Then it sheds its spores to go forth and populate the world. [This is where they differ from us. For us to do this our eggs & sperm would have to go out and live for a while. ] Those moss spores are haploid, like gametes, but capable of growing, so they go forth, sit down and grow into the gametophyte we started with..
Recap

Two gametes make a zygote that grows into a sporophyte. The sporophyte is fed through its foot by mom, the gametophyte. Sporophyte matures to make haploid spores via meiosis. Spores disperse, fall to the ground and germinate- grow into either male or female gametophytes. These gametophytes make sperm and eggs to start it all again.
Special notes: One, is moss mom feeds its baby sporophyte.
Two, is not all creatures have to be diploid their entire lives. One set of chromosomes is enough, two just ensures a noncorrupted backup copy.
I hope this works for you.