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Liverworts

  • #21
Great habitat shot,.
 
  • #22
Was out hiking today and was reminded of this thread when I encountered this today.

This picture doesn't really do it justice or adequately describe whats going on here. There is a small creek that runs continually beneath this patch of liverworts. When it rains very heavily the creek apparently runs both beneath the earth and then overflows into this liverwort covered layer of substrate that is made up almost entirely of fine grains of creek sand and chunks of quartz. I guess when it rains only normally(?) this area is totally "dry" and the watercourse continues only beneath it. It has been raining somewhat consistently these last few weeks/months; so it would seem that this secondary watercourse only comes into being during the most intense periods of precipitation, which for around here means something like 3+ inches of rain per day in succession.




That's amazing. I have never seen as pure a colony of them anywhere!! It looks so primeval--you have to think that 400 million years ago, that's how most plant life on Earth looked. Just an endless half-inch green blanket on soil.
 
  • #23
Not necessarily on soil as it's these plants that the soil was made from.
 
  • #24
Glad you guys enjoyed it. I have never seen anything like it. But the liverwort coverage of the banks of thiss creek is continuous and extensive. It's just this one area that surpassed normality.

I do love looking at liverworts and mosses really closely and when you get down on their level you can see what the world looked like billions of years ago. I can imagine being a massive crustacean crawling around in there.
 
  • #26
Marchantia polymorpha flaunting its male sexual organs, the antheridia


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  • #27
A small portion of a colony of Conocephalum conicum spotted on a visit to the Scottish Borders. The thallus on this is huge compared to the ones I posted previously.

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  • #28
I shot this today on the river Meden in Pleasley Vale. I identified three species in a very short distance.

 
  • #29
I returned to Pleasley Vale this morning and continued a little way further down stream until the path veered away from the river. I found a further three thalloid species but unfortunately I was unable to photograph them in situ as my position in each case was a little precarious. I retained some small samples by reaching down around corners and will grow them on to aid and/or confirm ID. One I was happy to label up as Conocephalum salebrosum which I found in a dry ditch next to an old stone wall. The other two are as yet unidentified although I suspect one is a Pellia, probably P. epiphylla which will need to be confirmed. The Pellia can be a little difficult to get to species level.
These add to Marchantia polymorpha, Conocephalum conicum and Lunularia cruciata from the visit in the video.

Incidentally, I stopped off at a nursery on my way to the field trip and they had some really terrific specimens of Marchantia polymorpha on sale in pots. Well OK they weren't the plants that were on the label but they were far more interesting than the plants that were :cool:
 
  • #30
Conocephalum salebrosum as described above.

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One of my Marchantia polymorpha is starting to flaunt its female bits :0o:

Marchantia polymorpha archegoniophore

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  • #31
Fuoh yes i have noticed this inside the pot aswell! You are correct thank you for the info! Ill tell the kids :)
I have showed them different lichens and mosses but i didnt kno there was a moss called liverwort thank u for the idenification, is it okay that the bladderwort is growing within the liverwort?
 
  • #32
Gasp! :0o:

Liverworts are NOT moss. Both are Bryophytes ( non-vascular plants) however
 
  • #33
This is a plant of Marchantia polymorpha I "rescued" from a concrete prison.

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I liked the shape of it. It doesn't quite look like that anymore it grew a bit :-D


This is Asterella gracilis a rarity . It's not a UK native, I had to import it. It arrived as completely dry bits of soil. Luckily I guessed the right way up and there were signs of green within a few days.

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This plant I discovered growing on clay in woodland. It was next to the path and I've walked that path many times and never seen it before. There were several groups.

The group on August 7th

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The group today, it looks a little different. Any ideas of ID?

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Edit: Now identified as Riccardia chamedryfolia
 
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  • #34
How does it spread Fred? (Lol that rhymed)
Does it spread kinda like bladderwort spreads across sphagnum? I got it in a pot of ultric and would like to remove some to grow on its own for study and I'm not sure if it will spread or not so wanted to kno what kind of pot i should use a long one or a round one...etc..etc.. Any prefured medium?

Thanks Again
 
  • #35
I just use peat / grit. they transplant quite well, keep well watered
 
  • #36
interesting thread on a family of plants that I have previously ignored, thank you Fred
 
  • #37
Will this be the new plant genus you were looking for chibae?
 
  • #39
Back in June MrsG and I had a peramble down the River Meden looking for Liverworts. Amongst others we came across this one below the outlet of a drainage pipe, so it is a very wet habitat.

June 5th ( divisions in mm)

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Today it looks a little different.

October 8th

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Mixed in with it is Lunularia cruciata and the one in question looks like a Riccardia but not the Riccardia chamedryfolia I found beside the woodland path.

The blob upper left in the second photo is a bit of grit (very small pebble).
 
  • #40
By popular demand (Zath said yes after I twisted his arm) here's a couple of videos of liverworts in habitat.

 
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