Liverworts and hornworts are also small, green plants grouped together with Mosses as part of the Bryophyte group due to their similar life cycles. Liverworts have two different growth forms: thallose, which is basically a flat plate of green tissue without any leaves, and leafy. Hornworts are similar to the thallose form of liverwort, but instead of the normal liverwort type of sporophyte, they have a hornlike structure.
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| A Hornwort - Notothylus orbicuarlis - growing on the bare soil in my flower garden |
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| A simple thallose liverwort - Pallavicinia lyellii |
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| A complex thallose liverwort - Conocephalum conicum |
The most abundant type of liverwort are the 'leafy' liverworts:
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| Bazzania trilobata |
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| Nowellia curvifolia - lover of rotten logs |
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| Calypogeja muellariana |
I usually can tell when I'm looking at a leafy liverwort, but it's hard to describe how. How do you answer that question?
ReplyDeleteThe picture of Bazzania trilobata is from me, I made it 2003 in the Bretagne. Dear Sue, please give the authors name, if you take photographs from other people!
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