Chiloscyphus sp.
Cotter River, ACT
Identify this sighting
| Chiloscyphus sp. | MichaelMulvaney | 27 May 2016 | |
| Chiloscyphus | Heino | 27 May 2016 | |
| Unverified | KenT | 26 May 2016 |
Please Login or Register to identify this sighting.
User's notes
The old mossy log that isn't covered in moss
2 comments
27 May 2016
Your main photo shows a couple of sporophytes (i.e. stems + spore capsules) of a leafy liverwort. The capsules have split, via four dehiscence lines, and four the segments have opened out to expose the spores for wind dispersal. In another photo you see a sporophyte shortly after emerging from its protective membrane. In that photo the capsule is a small black ball and you see a remnant of the protective membrane around the base of the stalk (just like a volva around a mushroom stalk). In leafy liverworts the spore capsule matures on the leafy plant and the mature spore capsule is raised on a flimsy, translucent stalk, via cell expansion. After perhaps a day or so the sporophyte collapses. In mosses you often see spore capsules on a stems, but here the stem builds slowly by cell addition and is robust and opaque, green initially (for early on it photosynthesizes) and brown later. The spore capsule matures atop the stem. Liverworts are examples or bryophytes and there is an elementary account of the different bryophytes at: http://www.cpbr.gov.au/bryophyte/what-is-bryophyte.html
27 May 2016
I agree with Heino's identification, that it looks to be a Chiloscyphus and is probably the common C. semiteres, but this would need to be confirmed using a key to leafy liverworts.
Location information
- Coordinates 148.835472-35.355333
- Maps Namadgi National Park
- Places Cotter River, ACT
Sighting information
- 1,001 - 10,000 Abundance
- 18 May 2016 10:05 AM Recorded on
- KenT Recorded by
Collections
- KenT Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr Chiloscyphus sp. Mosses, Liverworts & Hornworts Lichens; Mosses & other Bryophytes
Species information
- Chiloscyphus sp. Scientific name
- Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 947.5m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information