Lophozia incisa

Family / Families: Lophoziaceae
Scientific Name(s): Lophozia incisa (Schrad.) Dumort.
Location(s): Queets Rainforest, Olympic National Park, Washington, USA
Entry Author(s): Daniel Mosquin
Copyright Holder(s): Richard Droker@Flickr
Image Permissions: Please contact the copyright holder for permission to use.
Photographer(s) Appreciation: Thanks once more to Richard Droker@Flickr for providing us with a glimpse of the small: Lophozia incisa.
Tags: Liverwort, Lophoziaceae, USA, via Flickr, Washington

Leaves of Lophozia incisa

Ragged-leaf liverwort is a widely-distributed liverwort of forests and bogs. The Encyclopedia of Life entry for Schistochilopsis incisa (now a synonymous name) displays a map with collections across the Northern Hemisphere from Arctic regions to near the equator in South America. It also uses the common name jagged notchwort.

Pictured in today’s photographs are the leaves of this leafy liverwort. For a photograph of the spore-generating sporophytes, see Tab Tannery’s image: Lophozia incisa. Liverworts have similar life cycles to mosses: a relatively large gametophyte (or gamete-producing generation) produces gametes. After fertilization, these become a “parasitic” sporophyte physically and physiologically supported by the gametophyte. The UBC Bryology course (Biology 321) has an introduction to liverwort morphology and reproduction, with an emphasis on how liverworts differ from mosses.

The British Bryological Society’s Mosses and Liverworts of Britain and Ireland also has a field guide account of Lophozia incisa (PDF), highlighting some of the key features.