An archegonium (pl: archegonia) (from the Greekarche = beginning and gonos = born) is a multicellular structure or organ of the gametophyte phase of certain plants producing and containing the ovum or female gamete.The archegonium has a long neck and a swollen base. A gametophyte is the haploid structure or phase of life of a sexually reproducing plant. ... Jump to: navigation, search Divisions Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Hepaticophyta - liverworts Anthocerotophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants... A human ovum An ovum (loosely, egg or egg cell) is a female sex cell or gamete. ... Gametes (in Greek: γαμÎτες) —also known as sex cells, or spores—are the specialized germ cells that come together during fertilization (conception) in organisms that reproduce sexually. ...
Archegonia are typically located on the surface of the plant thallus, although in the horned liverworts they are embedded. They are also much reduced and embedded in the megasporangium of gymnosperms. The term is not used for angiosperms or the gnetophytes Gnetum and Welwitschia because the comparable "structure" is reduced to just a few cells, and the function of surrounding the gamete is completely assumed by diploid cells of the megasporangium. Thallus may mean: Thallus (tissue), an undifferentiated vegetative tissue (without specialization of function) of some non-mobile organisms, which were previously known as the thallophytes. ... Hornworts (or horned liverworts) are a group of non-vascular plants comprising the class Anthocerotae. ... Coast Douglas-fir cone, from a tree grown from seed collected by David Douglas Gymnosperms are seed-bearing, vascular plants. ... Classes Magnoliopsida - Dicots Liliopsida - Monocots The flowering plants (also angiosperms or Magnoliophyta) are one of the major groups of modern plants, comprising those that produce seeds in specialized reproductive organs called flowers, where the ovulary or carpel is enclosed. ... Species see text Gnetum is a genus of about 30-35 species of gymnosperms. ... Binomial name Welwitschia mirabilis Hook. ... Diploid (meaning double in Greek) cells have two copies (homologs) of each chromosome (both sex- and non-sex determining chromosomes), usually one from the mother and one from the father. ... A sporangium (pl. ...
The corresponding male organ is called the antheridium. Antheridium (plural: antheridia) is a structure or organ of the gametophyte phase of certain plants producing and containing the sperm or male gametes. ...
Archegonium ready for fertilization; a passage leads the form of a narrow flask with a long neck.
Each antheridium or archegonium arises from a single cell, and while the mature structure is similar in the two groups, the development presents differences in liverworts and mosses.
Fertilization is effected by the passage of a spermatozoid, attracted probably by means of a chemical stimulus, down the passage of the archegonial neck and its fusion with the ovum.
Both the Archegonium (female) and the Antheridium (male) can be found on the underside of the leaf.
Sperm (n) from the Antheridium uses flagella to swim through water to an egg (n) in the Archegonium and then proceeds to fertilize the egg, producing a zygote (2n).
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