Lower Devonian Gametophytes: Relation to the Phylogeny of Land Plants

Abstract

Three gametophytic plants now known from the Lower Devonian of Scotland and Germany show common features in their fertile parts. The morphological and anatomical structures indicate affinities to bryophytic gametophytes, although there is no evidence for a parasitic sporogonium-like sporophyte as in the Bryophyta. Several of the vascular plant sporophytes from the Rhynie Chert also have a few characteristics reminiscent of bryophytes. But these ancient gametophytes, if related to the sporophytes, indicate a closer relation of Bryophyta to Tracheophyta than would the study of sporophytes alone.