Embryophyte

The Embryophyta are the most familiar subkingdom of green plants that form vegetation on earth. Living embryophytes include hornworts, liverworts, mosses, ferns, lycophytes, gymnosperms and flowering plants, and emerged from Charophyte green algae. The Embryophyta are informally called land plants because they live primarily in terrestrial habitats, while the related green algae are primarily aquatic. All are complex multicellular eukaryotes with specialized reproductive organs. The name derives from their innovative characteristic of nurturing the young embryo sporophyte during the early stages of its multicellular development within the tissues of the parent gametophyte. With very few exceptions, embryophytes obtain their energy by photosynthesis, that is by using the energy of sunlight to synthesize their food from carbon dioxide and water.

Description

The evolutionary origins of the embryophytes are discussed further below, but they are believed to have evolved from within a group of complex green algae during the Paleozoic era (which started around 540 million years ago). Charales or the stoneworts may be the best living illustration of that developmental step. Embryophytes are primarily adapted for life on land, although some are secondarily aquatic. Accordingly, they are often called land plants or terrestrial plants.