Bryophytes are an important component of plant diversity, may be found from sea level to mountaintops, and particularly conspicuous on the Azores islands. These plants rely environmental water, which acquires intercepting rain dew (liquid water) uses fog (water vapor), transports both externally, by capillary forces, internally, in different cells (specialized or not). This study characterizes ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Anthropogenic depletion of stratospheric ozone in Arctic latitudes has resulted in an increase of ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B) reaching the biosphere. UV-B exposure is known to reduce above-ground biomass and plant height, to increase DNA damage and cause accumulation of UV-absorbing compounds in polar plants. However, many studies on Arctic mosses tended to be inconclusiv...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS In angiosperms xyloglucan endotransglucosylase (XET)/hydrolase (XTH) is involved in reorganization of the cell wall during growth and development. The location of oligo-xyloglucan transglucosylation activity and the presence of XTH expressed sequence tags (ESTs) in the earliest diverging extant plants, i.e. in bryophytes and algae, down to the Phaeophyta was examined. The re...

Figure 1. Racomitrium heterostichum mostly imbedded in ice while some branches are free and available for photosynthesis. In general, bryophytes seem able to withstand cold in the leafy state much better than their tracheophyte counterparts. Ochi (1952) found that most mosses (18 species tested) were resistant to cold to-20°C. Seven of these species were resistant to-27°C. He was unable to find...