Friday 12 February 2016

Kilvey Hill liverwort query

I collected this troublesome liverwort from Kilvey Hill today. When I collected it, I thought it looked like Lophozia excisa, but it appeared to have odd-looking tubular bracts with undeveloped perianths inside. At home I looked up Lophozia, but Paton states the perianths in this genus are free, so I turned to the Cephaloziella key and ran it down to integerrima - very unlikely, but remotely possible. I can't help feeeling I'm missing something more obvious here, so any help appreciated as it's been a long week! I'll take some better images in natural light tomorrow if it's not resolved, but these will have to do for now. Growing on an acidic path-side earth bank, associates included C. divaricata, Fissidens bryoides, Brachytheciastrum velutinum, Solenostoma gracillimum, Ceratodon purpureus, etc.

1 comment:

  1. I went through a similar process with C calyculata vs L excisa when I found the former in Pembs. I expect yours is either calyculata or integerrima, both of which are metalliphytes in Cornwall. The Brac velutinum etc associates suggest there's some metal going on at Kilvey Hill.

    ReplyDelete