Bryophytes are a group of land plants, sometimes treated as a taxonomic division, that contains three groups of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. In the strict sense, Bryophyta consists of the mosses only. Bryophytes are characteristically limited in size and prefer moist habitats although they can survive in drier environments. The bryophytes consist of about 20,000 plant species. Bryophytes produce enclosed reproductive structures, but they do not produce flowers or seeds. They reproduce sexually by spores and asexually by fragmentation or the production of gemmae. Though bryophytes were considered a paraphyletic group in recent years, almost all of the most recent phylogenetic evidence supports the monophyly of this group, as originally classified by Wilhelm Schimper in 1879. The term bryophyte comes from Ancient Greek βρύον (brúon) 'tree moss, liverwort', and φυτόν (phutón) 'plant'.
This article relates to the flora of New Zealand, especially indigenous strains. New Zealand's geographical isolation has meant the country has developed a unique variety of native flora. However, human migration has led to the importation of many other plants as well as widespread damage to the indigenous flora, especially after the advent of European colonisation, due to the combined efforts of farmers and specialised societies dedicated to importing European plants & animals.
The Marchantiophyta are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information.
Hornworts are a group of non-vascular Embryophytes constituting the division Anthocerotophyta. The common name refers to the elongated horn-like structure, which is the sporophyte. As in mosses and liverworts, hornworts have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information; the flattened, green plant body of a hornwort is the gametophyte stage of the plant.
Johann Jacob Dillen Dillenius was a German botanist. He is known for his Hortus Elthamensis on the rare plants around Eltham, London, and for his Historia muscorum, a natural history of lower plants including mosses, liverworts, hornworts, lycopods, algae, lichens and fungi.
Folioceros is a genus of hornworts in the family Anthocerotaceae. The genus is common locally in the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, growing on moist rocks, in fallow fields, and near waterfalls. It has a yellow-green gametophyte thallus that is crispy and translucent, with short branchings that are almost pinnate. Plants are usually less than a centimeter wide and 3 centimeters long. They may be monoicous or dioicous.
Bryology is the branch of botany concerned with the scientific study of bryophytes. Bryologists are people who have an active interest in observing, recording, classifying or researching bryophytes. The field is often studied along with lichenology due to the similar appearance and ecological niche of the two organisms, even though bryophytes and lichens are not classified in the same kingdom.
The flora of Scotland is an assemblage of native plant species including over 1,600 vascular plants, more than 1,500 lichens and nearly 1,000 bryophytes. The total number of vascular species is low by world standards but lichens and bryophytes are abundant and the latter form a population of global importance. Various populations of rare fern exist, although the impact of 19th-century collectors threatened the existence of several species. The flora is generally typical of the north-west European part of the Palearctic realm and prominent features of the Scottish flora include boreal Caledonian forest, heather moorland and coastal machair. In addition to the native species of vascular plants there are numerous non-native introductions, now believed to make up some 43% of the species in the country.
Monoclea is a genus of liverwort that contains two species. It is the only genus in the family Monocleaceae. Species of this genus can be found in New Zealand, South and Central America as well as in the Caribbean.
Ptilidium is a genus of liverwort, and is the only genus in family Ptilidiaceae. It includes only three species: Ptilidium californicum, Ptilidium ciliare, and Ptilidium pulcherrimum. The genus is distributed throughout the arctic and subarctic, with disjunct populations in New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego. Molecular analysis suggests that the genus has few close relatives and diverged from other leafy liverworts early in their evolution.
Fossombroniales is an order of liverworts.
Handbook of the New Zealand Flora is a two volume work by English botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker with systematic botanical descriptions of plants native to New Zealand. The first part published in 1864 covers flowering plants, and the second part published in 1867 covers Hepaticae, mosses, lichens, fungi and algae.
Petalophyllum, or petalwort, is a genus of liverworts in the order Fossombroniales.
Ricciocarpos natans is the only species in the genus Ricciocarpos, a genus of liverworts in the family Ricciaceae. It was formerly listed in 1759 as a species of Riccia by Linnaeus, but then assigned to a new genus of its own in 1829 by August Carl Joseph Corda.
The Setaphyta are a clade within the Bryophyta which includes Marchantiophytina (liverworts) and Bryophytina (mosses). Anthocerotophytina (hornworts) are excluded. A 2018 study found through molecular sequencing that liverworts are more closely related to mosses than hornworts, with the implication that liverworts were not among the first species to colonize land.
Petalophyllum preissii, the lettuce liverwort, is a species of liverwort that is the type species of the family Petalophyllaceae. It is found in Australia and New Zealand, and is at risk of extinction in both countries.
