Liverwort in the context of "Ferns"

The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (land plants with vascular tissues such as xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from non-vascular plants (mosses, hornworts and liverworts) by having specialized transport bundles that conduct water and nutrients from and to the roots, as well as life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase.

Ferns have complex leaves called megaphylls that are more complex than the microphylls of clubmosses. Most ferns are leptosporangiate ferns that produce coiled fiddleheads that uncoil and expand into fronds. The group includes about 10,560 known extant species. Ferns are defined here in the broad sense, being all of the Polypodiopsida, comprising both the leptosporangiate (Polypodiidae) and eusporangiate ferns, the latter group including horsetails, whisk ferns, marattioid ferns and ophioglossoid ferns.

The embryophytes (/ˈɛmbriəˌfaɪts/) are a clade of plants, known as Embryophyta (Plantae sensu strictissimo) (/ˌɛmbriˈɒfətə, -oʊˈfaɪtə/) or land plants. They are the most familiar group of photoautotrophs that make up the vegetation on Earth's dry lands and wetlands. Embryophytes have a common ancestor with green algae, having emerged within the Phragmoplastophyta clade of freshwater charophyte green algae as a sister taxon of Charophyceae, Coleochaetophyceae and Zygnematophyceae. Embryophytes consist of the bryophytes and the polysporangiophytes. Living embryophytes include hornworts, liverworts, mosses, lycophytes, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms (flowering plants). Embryophytes have haplodiplontic life cycles.

The embryophytes are informally called "land plants" because they thrive primarily in terrestrial habitats (despite some members having evolved secondarily to live once again in semiaquatic/aquatic habitats), while the related green algae are primarily aquatic. Embryophytes 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 biological energy by photosynthesis, using chlorophyll a and b to harvest the light energy in sunlight for carbon fixation from carbon dioxide and water in order to synthesize carbohydrates while releasing oxygen as a byproduct. The study of land plants is called phytology.

In botany, a rosette is a circular arrangement of leaves or of structures resembling leaves.

In flowering plants, rosettes usually sit near the soil, but they can also be at the top of an otherwise leafless branch or trunk. Their structure is an example of a modified stem in which the internode gaps between the leaves do not expand, so that all the leaves remain clustered tightly together and at a similar height. Some insects induce the development of galls that are leafy rosettes.

The oil bodies of liverworts, occasionally dubbed complex oil bodies for distinction, are unique organelles exclusive to the Marchantiophyta. They are markedly different from the oil bodies found in other land plants and algae in that they are membrane-bound, and not associated with food storage. The organelles are variable and present in an estimated 90% of liverwort species, often proving taxonomically relevant. As a whole, the formation and function of the organelles are poorly understood. Complex oil bodies are recognized as sites of isoprenoid biosynthesis and essential oil accumulation, and have been implicated with anti-herbivory, desiccation tolerance, and photo-protection.