Cave structures are divided up into three zone based on the amount of sunlight extending into each . The amount of sunlight in the entrance zone is unmitigated by the overhang of the cave entrance , meaning local plants and wildlife abound . The moody zona in the very back of the cave hosts no sunlight whatsoever and as such no plant can survive there . The twilight zone hosts low scant levels in which mosses , ferns and other specialized species of plant life can prosper .

Mosses

Mosses make up a kin of 12,000 species and , taxonomically utter , are most nearly related to liverwort . But where liverwort only has a single footlike structure call a rhizoid to anchor it to a open , moss has many of them . Moss lacks seeds , true leaves or flowers , and makes do with long , soft , spongy protuberances that contain small amounts of chlorophyl to perform photosynthesis . They also miss cuticles , the waxy leaf cut through that protects them from dehydration . For that intellect they only grow in areas of in high spirits moisture and low sunshine . Most species of moss lack common names because they appear similar except upon dissection , but the proper names of some metal money bump in cave are Orthotrichum truncato - dentatum , Pleurozium schreberi , Ozobryum ogalalense , Sphagnum russowii and Andreaea kilimandscharica .

Ferns

Ferns cover a group of 12,000 species of true plant . They have vascular systems , but miss the ability to reproduce through seed . rather , they use spore in a complex two - genesis process in which alternate generations are either in the diploid sporophytic phase or the haploid gametophytic phase . Because of the exercise of spores , moist environment tend to be more able to host fern . All ferns are photosynthetic , frondlike leaf growing by the end shaped in a miserly drum roll called a crozier , slowly unrolling and expanding . The fronds are high-pitched in protein and other nutrients , which is full of life to invertebrate and venial mammalian life in cave surround . Depending on the clime and wall soil pH , possible cave ferns include bracken fern ( Pteris cretica ) , bird ’s nest fern ( Asplenium nidus ) , ebony spleenwort ( Aplenium platyneuron ) and body of water horsetail ( Equisetum fluviatile ) .

Liverworts

There are rough 8,000 metal money of liverwort , all of which are deal , along with mosses and hornwort , as nonvascular plant . Liverworts are among the earliest country - dwelling plant jazz , having made the modulation from water - lie algae sometime in the Devonian epoch almost 4 million years ago . Each hepatic is little more than a series of ramify green ribbons , as there is negligible distinction between root , stalk or leave . They lack connective tissue paper , vascular systems or stomata that would enable them to block losing wet to the environment . As such , hepatic can only pull round in extremely dank , moist , low - light environments , make them ideal cave - dwellers .

References

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