It has been suggested that monoicy may have benefits in dry habitats where the ability to produce sporophytes is limited due to lack of water.
The word monoicous and the related forms mon(o)ecious are derived from the Greek mόνος (mónos), single, and οἶκος (oîkos) or οἰκία (oikía), house.
The sporophyte in mosses and liverworts consists of an unbranched stalk (a seta) bearing a single sporangium or spore-producing capsule.
Bryophytes have the most elaborate gametophytes of all living land plants, and thus have a wide variety of gametangium positions and developmental patterns.
Gametangia are typically borne on the tips of shoots, but may also be found in the axils of leaves, under thalli or on elaborate structures called gametangiophores.
[13] In the liverwort genus Radula it was found that monoicy was a recent evolutionary acquisition connected to epiphytism, arising 6 times.