Unidentified

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Identification history

	Asterella drummondii	23 Oct 2023	Heino1
	Unidentified	2 Sep 2023	Cristy1676

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User's notes

Really interesting lil things! About 1cm high, black stem and from the top appears to have four sections to which each section has the web like white mesh?. Also appeared to be living along side what appears to be little Sundews?. (I'll do a separate ID for the Sundews).

1 comment

Heino1 wrote:

16 Oct 2023

Not a fungus. This is part of a liverwort plant, probably the species Asterella drummondii. Below the cap you can probably make out a couple of blackish balls behind those white ribbons. Those balls are spore capsules. The whole stalk & cap structure arises from the vegetative part of the plant, a narrow, strap-like growth. Here are links to a few Asterella photos (the first two and the fourth show the strap-like growth, with no spore-capsules, and in the third you see a colony with numerous capsule-bearing structures):
https://www.anbg.gov.au/bryophyte/photos-captions/asterella-drummondii-6.html
https://www.anbg.gov.au/bryophyte/photos-captions/asterella-drummondii-7.html
https://www.anbg.gov.au/bryophyte/photos-captions/asterella-drummondii-9.html
https://www.anbg.gov.au/bryophyte/photos-captions/asterella-drummondii-RWP-6426.html

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Sighting information

3 Abundance
Cristy1676 Recorded by
Collections
Unidentified Lichens; Mosses & other Bryophytes Mosses, Liverworts & Hornworts Cristy1676 Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr

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