Moss sporophytes collecting water

 Botany gets a bit more complicated when we meet  bryophytes and cryptogams Something to start with could be: bryophytes are all cryptogams, but not vice-versa, some cryptogams are  not bryophytes. Yet beware  not to mess them all with cryptograms, although it seems that science may find some cryptograms (secret code) in genetic material of mosses, giving promise to new drugs development. Anyway,I was astonished seeing all those water pearls on our concrete wall moss looking as simple plain green carpet from far, but turning into a fine needlepoint when one comes close enough.It attracted me enough to spend some time observing tiny green hair.I can totally understand those guys from  british bryological society !

“Muscinae” from Ernst Haeckel‘s Kunstformen der Natur, 1904

The spore-bearing sporophytes(i.e. the diploid multicellular generation) are short-lived and dependent on the gametophyte for water supply and nutrition. ,mosses and other bryophytes have only a single set of chromosomes and so are haploid (i.e. each chromosome exists in a unique copy within the cell). There are periods in the moss life cycle when they do have a double set of paired chromosomes, but this happens only during the sporophyte stage.

from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moss