Specimen #6 Leafy Liverwort

Figure 1: Plagiochila asplenioides

Name: Plagiochila asplenioides
Family:  Plagiochilaceae

Collection Date:  September 13, 2011

Habitat: Found on rockwall in a shaded area.

Location:  South Chargrin Reservation

Description: Leafy liverwort with rounded green leaves.  Found among different moss in a shadeed area on a rock substrate.
Collector: Jamie Frost


Key used: Conard, H.S, 1956. How to Know the Mosses and Liverworts Revised Edition, WM. C. Brown Company Publishers, Dubuque, Iowa.

Introduction Key pg. 22

1a. Plants with stem and leaves; ascending...2

2b. Leaves in two rows near upperside of stem, without midrib and with cells isodiametric..... Class 2 Hepaticae, Order Jungermanniales ... pg 156

Key to Liverworts of North America pg. 156

1b. Plants with stem and leaves; ascending... 3

3a. Leaves in 2 rows near upper side of stem, without midrib and cells isodiametric.... Jungermanniales... 31
31b. Leaves entire... 35
35a. Leaves curved, not sharply folded... 36
36b. Leaves transversely attached, or succubous: attached obliquely so that the edge of the leaf on upper surface of stem is attached neared the base of the stem than the lower edge; thus the leaf slopes toward the apex of the stem... 43
43b. Leaves toothed on the margin... 48
48a. Leaves toothed, at least on distal margin... 49
49a. Leaves long decurrent on upper side of stem, with margins turned back, Genus Plagiochila... 50
50a. Teeth of leaf more than 10, small to obsolete... Plagiochila asplenioides

Links:
http://symbiota.org/bryophytes/taxa/index.php?taxon=160249
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=PLAS6