Thallophyta

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Thallophyta

(n. pl.) A phylum of plants of very diverse habit and structure, including the algae, fungi, and lichens. The simpler forms, as many blue-green algae, yeasts, etc., are unicellular and reproduce vegetatively or by means of asexual spores; in the higher forms the plant body is a thallus, which may be filamentous or may consist of plates of cells; it is commonly undifferentiated into stem, leaves, and roots, and shows no distinct tissue systems; the fronds of many algae, however, are modified to serve many of the functions of the above-named organs. Both asexual and sexual reproduction, often of a complex type, occur in these forms. The exist almost exclusively as gametophytes, the sporophyte being absent or rudimentary. By those who do not separate the Myxophyta from the Tallophyta as a distinct phylum the latter is treated as the lowermost group in the vegetable kingdom.