Riccia sp. (genus)

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The photo of the logs was taken from where the liverworts were found. They are flood debris, and show that the liverworts were well underwater in last year's flood.

Sometimes when you see plants after rising water recedes, what you see is plants that have developed from spores deposited before high water levels. When I’ve been on field work with a bryologist in some of the reserves one of two hundred kilometres west of the Great Dividing Range, one type of habitat in which to look for Riccias were the simple dams (created by gouging out a depression in the ground) especially those with shallow gradients leading to the water. These could be full in cooler months but dry out during summer. At those times when a lot of water had evaporated, leaving a large expanse of bare ground around the remaining water, you’d sometimes see different ‘growth zones’. Spores deposited on dry ground during an earlier dry period with low water levels germinated at different times as they were exposed at different times by the receding water. Right by the water’s edge (where the mud was very, very squishy) there’d be no plants. A little further away, on somewhat firmer mud, there’d be tiny plants, still at the fairly early stages of growth after spore germination. Move out a bit further onto firm mud and you see larger plants, having arisen from spores that had germinated earlier. Well away from the water on hard, dry soil that had not seen water of any form for some time, you’d be likely to see plants with spore capsules (perhaps already empty) but where the plants themselves were already drying out or even dying. If you come across a nearby largish depression that is seasonally wet and then dries out, you might want to check it out from time to time to see if there are any such ‘growth zones’.

Thanks for the tip, Heino. I will keep this in mind.