Economic importance of Bryophytes?
- SPHAGNUM AND USES OF PEAT
(i)Peat is formed by the pieces of dead vegetable matter partially decomposed in the water bogs, gradually compressed and carbonized under pressure of late deposits.
(ii)Peat is a dark brown colored spongy substance.
(iii)Other plants in peat are reeds, sedges, grasses and ferns etc.
(iv)It has a peculiar capability to with hold water 200 times more than their own weight.
2. USES OF PEAT:
(i) Fuel: Peat is rich source of carbon. Thick deposits of peat are cut into blocks, dried and used as fuel.
(ii) In Horticulture:
(iii) Peat is added to make clayey soils porous and to prevent cracking in sandy soils and humus poor soils.
(iv) Used as a packing material for shipment of live plants, cut flowers, vegetable, bulbs, tubers etc. due to its ability to hold water tenaciously.Sphangnol is used in skin diseases.
3. MEDICINAL USE
(i) Marchantia polymorpha is used to cure pulmonary tuberculosis and have anti tumor properties (4) The decoction prepared by Sphagnum is used in the treatment of hemorrhage.
(ii) A distillate of peat tar called Sphagnol is used in the treatment of skin diseases.
(iii) Tea prepared from Polytrichum commune is used to dissolve kidney and gall bladder stones.
- AS SOURCE OF FOOD
Bryophytes are not directly consumed by human begins as food but are used in preparation of many food items e.g. Sphagnum is used as an ingredient in the preparation of bread. Bryum and Polytrichum constitute the chief diet of grouse and chicks in poultry. Alaskan reindeer grazes upon Polytrichum sp.
5. AS POLLUTION INDICATORS
Both alive and air-dried mosses particularly Sphagnum can absorb metals. Accumulation of heavy metal cations.in mosses enables them to be used as atmospheric and aquatic pollution indicators and in minological surveys.
- IN EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
Liverworts and mosses have played an important role in various experimental studies. e.g. mechanism of sex determination was first discovered in liverworts. Studies on heteroploid bryophytes and on polyploids are important contributions in the studies of genetics. Experiments were made to study growth patterns in mosses.
- SOIL CONSERVATION
Mosses grow in dense mat forming a carpet like structure and protect the soil from drying up or impact of rain drops and also from run off water. Underground rhizoids also bind the soil particles together to a considerable depth and hence checks soil erosion.
- SOIL FORMATION
Lichens are the pioneer organisms that can grow on rocky rocks where no other plants can grow. The organic acids secreted by them gradually disintegrate and dissolve rocks. The rock particles together with dead matter of lichens form the soil on which mosses make their appearance and cover the substratum. Later on mosses give way to herbs.
9. BOG SUCCESSION
These grow on the banks of water or on other shallow bodies and extend inward and grow over the surface of water with their stem intertwined to form thick mats. Such areas are called quacking bogs and because of humus and moisture they provide suitable substratum for germination of seeds of hydrophytic plants.