Specimen #4 Liverwort

Figure 1. Thalloid liverwort growing damp  rock wall.

Figure 2. Close up of thalloid liverwort with clearly visible air pores.

Figure 3. Air pores of thalloid liverwort.

Figure 4. Clear rhizoids of thalloid liverwort.

Name: Conocephalum

Family:  Conocephalaceae

Collection Date: Sept. 26, 2011

Habitat: Damp soil and rocks

Location: South Chagrin Reservation, Ohio

Description:Branching thalloid, dark green to green-yellow with polygon shaped divisions across the upper surface.  One air pore per polygonal section, sitting atop a mound of clear cells.  Rhizoids clear.  Growing vertically on the face of a damp rock wall. 
Collector: Jennifer Friedler

Key used: Conard, H.S. and P.L. Redfearn, Jr. 1979. How to Know the Mosses and Liverworts 2^nd Edition, McGraw-Hill, Boston, Mass.

Keying Steps:

Introduction key pg. 19

1b. Plant thalloid...4

4b. More than one chloroplast per cell...5

5a. Strongly flattened, thalloid, without distinction between stem and leaf...6

6a. Opaque thallus...pg 239 Marchantiales

Key to Order Marchantiales pg. 239

1a. Air pores visible without a lense...8

8b. Thalli without gammae and without marginal scales on underside...10

10a. Air pore on low mound of colorless cells...pg 283 Conocephalum

"Thalli pale to dark green above, purplish below, 1-2 cm wide, up to 20com long, dichotomously branching, upper surface with distinct polygonal areas, pores distinct, on moist rocks and soil, wide spread in North America" (Conrad 283).

Liverwort Links:

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CONOC3