Obtain a prepared slide of an unfertilized Mnium female gametophyte (archegonial head). This is the structure that produces the female gametangia, archegonia . Each archegonium produces a single haploid egg by mitosis.

archegonium, the female reproductive organ in ferns and mosses. An archegonium also occurs in some gymnosperms, e.g., cycads and conifers. A flask-shaped structure, it consists of a neck, with one or more layers of cells, and a swollen base—the venter—which contains the egg.

Examine metagenesis and the roles of antheridia, archegonia, and the sporangium in the moss Mnium hornumLearn about alternation of generations (metagenesis) in the moss Mnium hornum. Gametophyte plants produce eggs and sperm, and sporophyte plants produce spores.

An archegonium (pl.: archegonia), from the Ancient Greek ἀρχή ("beginning") and γόνος ("offspring"), is a multicellular structure or organ of the gametophyte phase of certain plants, producing and containing the ovum or female gamete. …

Mnium is a genus of mosses belonging to the family Mniaceae. The species of this genus are found in Europe and North America. [1]

Obtain a prepared slide of an unfertilized Mnium female gametophyte (archegonial head). This is the structure that produces the female gametangia, archegonia . Each archegonium produces a single haploid egg by mitosis.

Eggs are contained in an archegonium, and developing sperm in an antheridium (these have been lost in some of the more structurally complex lineages of plants).

Archegonia and antheridia probably had a common origin. Hypothetically, the structure from which they have been derived was an asexual multilocular terminal zoosporangium of some primitive extinct member of the Chlorophyceae; the course for the archegonium being through a gametangium possessing more than one functioning gamete.

When six to eight segments have been cut off, the two-sided apical cell is transformed into a three-sided one, a process that introduces a history distinctly characteristic of the archegonium.

Archegonia and antheridia probably had a common origin. Hypothetically, the structure from which they have been derived was an asexual multilocular terminal zoosporangium of some primitive extinct member of the Chlorophyceae; the course for the archegonium being through a gametangium possessing more than one functioning gamete.