Airborne sperm of liverworts HD size.mov

Whitish smokes in the movie are small droplets containing sperms.The sperms in the droplets are still un-motile. When touch thewater, they begin to swim. In our experiments, misting with water is trigger of the explosion. If antheridia were mature, the explosion begin within few minutes. The event continued about for 10 min.
Intense light for video recording also seems to accelerate the phenomenon. Each antheridia is deeply sunk in a cavity of antheridiophore and there is a very small pore on the top of each cavity. Swollen cells of surrounding tissue might cause the pressure force. Cavers (1903) and Muggoch & Walton (1942) also discussed about the mechanism, but, I think no one examined about the detail mechanism of the phenomenon.
In Hiroshima, the season of mreps dispersal is Spring (April to May). In our field observation, we detected many airborne sperms in the sunny day after rain shower.
I do not have detail data about how many species of liverworts have Airborne sperms . At least, Asian species of Conocephalum (C.japonicum) do in the same manner.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• sperms
• bryophytes
• plant
• liverworts