the sporophyte in bryophytes (including mosses) is not free-living but attached to the photosynthetic gametophyte and derives nourishment from it. Since it depends on the gametophyte for anchorage and nutrition (partially or fully), it is considered partially parasitic. Contrastingly, the sporophyte produces haploid spores (not gametes) after meiosis, and it arises from a zygote, not a spore .