Both are plants with primitive origins that produce spores instead of seeds. In moist, shady locations, you may find mosses and ferns cohabiting with one another.

Plants that lack vascular tissue, which is formed of specialized cells for the transport of water and nutrients, are referred to as non-vascular plants or bryophytes. Non-vascular embryophytes probably appeared early in land plant evolution and are all seedless. These plants include liverworts, mosses, and hornworts.

Neither do they have leaves, stems, or roots. They absorb water from their surfaces by capillarity. The “leaves” of leafy liverworts and mosses are undifferentiated tissues and lack stomata, and the moss “stems” lack vascular tissues.

A huge variety of mosses and liverworts festoon the woodland floors and tree branches of our western oakwoods. Fragrant liverworts may impart a sweet and peppery perfume. Bryophytes provide homes for tiny woodland creatures.

Nonvascular plants evolved first. These plants do not have vascular tissue, xylem or phloem, to transport nutrients, water, and food. Examples include mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. Without vascular tissue, these plants do not grow very tall.

Fact Check

There are two different types of vascular tissues, called xylem and phloem. Both are shown in Figure below. Xylem is vascular tissue that transports water and dissolved minerals from roots to stems and leaves. This type of tissue consists of dead cells that lack end walls between adjacent cells.

The non-vascular plants include mosses, hornworts and liverworts, and some algae. They are generally small plants limited in size by poor transport methods for water, gases and other compounds. They reproduce via spores rather than seeds and do not produce flowers, fruit or wood.

Non-vascular plants include two distantly related groups: Bryophytes, an informal group that taxonomists now treat as three separate land-plant divisions, namely: Bryophyta (mosses), Marchantiophyta (liverworts), and Anthocerotophyta (hornworts).

Non-vascular plants, or bryophytes, include the most primitive forms of land vegetation. These plants lack the vascular tissue system needed for transporting water and nutrients. Unlike angiosperms, non-vascular plants do not produce flowers, fruit, or seeds. They also lack true leaves, roots, and stems.

Some nonvascular plants produce various nutrients that are passed to the soil and can be used by other plants. Also, nonvascular plants that cover a large surface area help maintain the cohesion of the land by reducing the risk of erosion. Nonvascular plants are also very important to animals.

Because its chemistry makes it acidic and resistant to decay, Sphagnum mosses have also been used to dress wounds, raise mushrooms and tarantulas, and filter septic system waste.

: not vascular: such as. a : not of, relating to, involving, caused by, or supplied with blood vessels nonvascular leg pain. b : lacking conducting channels for transporting water and nutrients nonvascular mosses — see also nonvascular plant.

Examples of a Nonvascular Plant

• Moss. Moss is a nonvascular plant found worldwide.
• Liverwort. Where moss grows in small branching structures, and many organisms get packed in a larger mat or bundle, liverwort grows as small, individual leaf-like structure.
• Hornwort.
• Algae.