FIGURE 2.

Developmental stages of (A) Funaria hygrometrica and (B) Physcomitrium patens sporophytes investigated in this study. The stages were characterized as follows: stage 1 – sporophyte emerges from gametophytic tissue, stage 2 – elongation of the seta occurs, stage 3 – sporophyte reaches its final height, capsule begins to swell, stage 4 – capsule has swollen to its final size and all specialized structures are established but meiosis has not occurred yet. Presence of the green arrow indicates that the intercalary meristem (green line) is likely active and shows the direction of cell division. The F. hygrometrica sporophyte reaches a final size of 5 cm, the P. patens sporophyte grows to a size of 1 mm. The calyptra (dashed line) is developed from the archegonium and as such, is not part of the sporophyte.