Embryophyte
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Embryophyta or Metaphyta, are the most familiar subkingdom of green plants that form vegetation on earth. The embryophytes include hornworts, liverworts, mosses, ferns and their allies, gymnosperms and flowering plants, but exclude the 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.
