SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM MARCHANTIOPHYTA
| EUKARYA> ARCHAEPLASTIDA> VIRIDIPLANTAE> STREPTOBIONTA> EMBRYOPHYTA> MARCHANTIOPHYTA |
MARCHANTIOPHYTA LINKS
| The following description came from Schofield (1985) and Bold et al. (1987). |
I. SYNONYMS: Hepatophyta, liverworts, hepatics.
II. NUMBER: > 10,000 species.
III. PHYLUM CHARACTERISTICS
- A. Gametophyte
- Form: Thallose or leafy.
- Rhizoids: Rhizoids (text with tooltip) Thread-like growths, simple or branched, which serve for absorption and anchorage. unicellular and unbranched.
- Stomata: Absent.
- Chloroplasts: Many small chloroplasts per cell, pyrenoids absent.
- Gametangia: Develop from superficial cells. Gametophores (text with tooltip) Also called the Gametangiophore; A modified branch bearing the gametangia. (=gametangiophores) absent to well developed.
- Protonemata (text with tooltip) A protonema is the initial filamentous (sometimes thalloid) gametophyte that grows from the spore of charophytes, and non-vascular embryophytes. : Usually small.
- B. Sporophyte
- Form: Usually with foot (text with tooltip) A foot is the muscular locomotory organ whose structure defines, in part, the molluscan classes. , seta (text with tooltip) The stalk of the sporophyte capsule. and capsule (text with tooltip) The sporangium of the sporophyte; elevated by the seta. ; short-lived; usually without chloroplasts.
- Seta: Absent to long.
- Capsule: Contains very little sterile tissue; columella (text with tooltip) A small column of tissue running up through the center of the capsule. absent; often dehisces (text with tooltip) To split open releasing spores. along 4 lines.
- Elaters (text with tooltip) In the sporangia of liverworts and horsetails, small twisted cells that push the spores out of the sporangium. : Present.
- Calyptra: Absent.
- Peristome: Absent.
- Life History of:
- C. Ecology: These plants are found throughout the world; from deserts to open water. Usually they occur attached in wet or moist environments.
| LITERATURE CITED Barthlott, W., J. Mutke, G. Braun, and G. Kier. 2000. Die ungleiche globale Verteilung pflanzlicher Artenvielfalt –Ursachen und Konsequenzen. Berichte der Reinhold Tüxen-Gesellschaft. 12: 67-84. Bold, H. C., C. J. Alexopoulos, and T. Delevoryas. 1987. Morphology of Plants and Fungi. 5th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. New York. Crandall-Stottler, B. and R. E. Stottler. 2000. Morphology and classification of the Marchantiophyta. In: A. J. Shaw and B. Goffinet, eds. Bryophyte Ecology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. pp. 21–70. Crandall-Stottler, B., R. E. Stottler, and D. G. Long. 2009. Phylogeny and classification of the Marchantiophyta. Edinburgh Journal of Botany. 66(1): 155-198. Dittmer, H. J. 1964. Phylogeny and Form in the Plant Kingdom. Van Norstrand Company, Inc. New York. Forrest, L. L., E. C. Davis, D. G. Long, B. J. Crandall-Stotler, A. Clark, and M. L. Hollingsworth. 2006. Unraveling the evolutionary history of the liverworts (Marchantiophyta): multiple taxa, genomes, and analyses. The Bryologist. 109(3): 303-334. Graham, L. E. 1985. The origin of the life cycle of land plants. American Scientist 73: 178-186. Graham, L. E., C. F. Delwiche, and B. D. Mishler. 1991. Phylogenetic connections between the ”Green Algae” and the ”Bryophytes.” Advances in Bryology. 4: 213-244. Graham, L. E., and L. W. Wilcox. 2000. Algae. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. He-Nygrén, X., A. Juslén, I. Ahonen, D. Glenny, and S. Piippo. 2006. Illuminating the evolutionary history of liverworts (Marchantiophyta)- towards classification. Cladistics. 22:1-31. Hess, S., J-P. Frahm, and I. Theisen. 2005. Evidence of zoophagy in a second liverwort species, Pleurozia purpurea. The Bryologist. 108(2): 212-218. Marin, B. and M. Melkonian. 1999. Mesostigmatophyceae, a new class of streptophyte green algae revealed by SSU rRNA sequence comparisons. Protist. 150: 399-417. Scagel, R. F., R. J. Bandoni, J. R. Maze, G. E. Rouse, W.B. Schofield, and J. R. Stein. 1982. Nonvascular Plants. Wadsworth Publishing Co., Belmont, California. Schofield, W. B. 1985. Introduction to Bryology. Macmillan Publishing Co. New York. |
| By Jack R. Holt. Last revised: 03/21/2013 |
