| | The liverwort genera (Bryophyta: Hepaticae and Anthocerotae) of Britain and Ireland |
Unless indicated otherwise, the following attributes are implicit throughout the descriptions, except where the characters concerned are inapplicable.
Gametophyte. The branching conventional. Plants with neither flagella nor flagelliform shoots or branches; without paraphyllia. The leaf cells smooth, not mamillose. Rhizoids present; of one kind, all smooth.
The leafy shoots not julaceous. The leaf margins not multi-ciliate. The ventral lobes neither helmet-shaped nor saccate; without a stylus. The vegetative leaves without vittae; without a waxy cuticle. Not subterranean. The thallus not greasy in appearance; not hairy both dorsally and ventrally; without dorsal pores.
The gametangia and capsules borne externally. The gametangia not borne on special ‘receptacles’. The antheridia not mixed with paraphyses. Marsupia absent. Perianth distally smooth, not plicate. Perianth not beaked.
Sporophyte. The capsule without a columella; not green. Elaters elongate-unicellular. Ecology. Not nitrophilous.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2005 onwards. The liverwort genera (Bryophyta: Hepaticae and Anthocerotae) of Britain and Ireland. Version: 5th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.