Short Notes:

Although mosses and ferns are both spore-producing plants that alternate generations, they differ in two major ways. The first concerns the dominant generations. In ferns by far the larger generation - and the more commonly recognized - is the sporophyte with its long stem and leaflike lobes. The gametophyte, however, is a tiny plant, just over half a centimetre long, that is difficult to spot. The opposite is true with the mosses, and their close relatives, the liverworts, where the gametophyte is dominant.

The other difference lies in the way the generations grow. With ferns, the sporophyte and gametophyte generations are independent of each other: Once the sporophyte can make its own food the tiny gametophyte will die. But with mosses and liverworts they are completely dependent: The sporophyte needs the gametophyte for its nourishment.