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Bryophyte Defining Traits: Nonvascular, Gametophyte-Dominant

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Bryophytes lack vascular tissue for internal water transport, so most stay small, and their gametophyte generation dominates the visible plant body.

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A moss's green, leafy structure is its gametophyte; its dependent sporophyte remains attached, drawing nutrients from the gametophyte throughout its short life.

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A bryophyte's small size traces to its missing vascular tissue, not to any lesser evolutionary status among land plants.