Living with liverworts

[WhistlingBadger]

Anybody know their liverworts? I just shot off an email to a couple bryophite specialists at the U of Wyoming, hoping to get a positive ID on these liverworts growing in my Paludarium. The Badgerling and I collected them a couple months ago in a dry, shaded overflow channel of a local creek. There's a scale-like pattern on the upper surfaces. Pencil is for size reference, but I don't think these are full grown yet.

I'm thinking Conocephalum conicum or possibly a Metzgeria, but I would like to know for sure. I've never grown liverwort before. Interesting stuff.

And just for cuteness, here's one of Ago.

 

[JohnnyReb]

Anybody know their liverworts? I just shot off an email to a couple bryophite specialists at the U of Wyoming, hoping to get a positive ID on these liverworts growing in my Paludarium. The Badgerling and I collected them a couple months ago in a dry, shaded overflow channel of a local creek. There's a scale-like pattern on the upper surfaces. Pencil is for size reference, but I don't think these are full grown yet.

I'm thinking Conocephalum conicum or possibly a Metzgeria, but I would like to know for sure. I've never grown liverwort before. Interesting stuff.
View attachment 358945

View attachment 358946

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And just for cuteness, here's one of Ago.
View attachment 358948

My guess. The snakeskin liverwort (Conocephalum salebrosum, Conocephalaceae) has thick, light green thalli. The long thalli have polygon-like cells with a single pore per cell. This thalloid liverwort is aromatic when crushed (to my nose, it smells spicy and floral). The snakeskin liverwort is found by seeps or in wet ravines.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Could be. I don't have enough of it to crush a piece and see if it smells nice. The growth form looks a bit more like C. conicum, though, and I know that species grows in Wyoming.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

My guess. The snakeskin liverwort (Conocephalum salebrosum, Conocephalaceae) has thick, light green thalli. The long thalli have polygon-like cells with a single pore per cell. This thalloid liverwort is aromatic when crushed (to my nose, it smells spicy and floral). The snakeskin liverwort is found by seeps or in wet ravines.

Just heard back from a bryrologist: You were right! But I kind of was too: She said that in the old manuals (including my field guide) it goes by C. conicum. She said that recent genetic studies show the latter is mainly an European species. So, C. Salebrosum it is. Snakeskin liverwort. Cool.

She also tentatively identified several of the mosses in the pictures. She said that, to really ID them, she'd need to look at them under a stereo microscope, and I could send her samples if I wanted to. I don't need positive IDs that badly, but it's nice that she offered.