Marchantia polymorpha

Well liverwort ( Marchantia polymorpha )

The fountain liverwort ( Marchantia polymorpha ) is probably the most familiar type of Marchantiopsida, it was described by Linnaeus.

The fountain liverwort is the moss of the year 2013 in Austria and Germany.

Description

The thallus of the plant is band-like, and up to 2 cm wide and 10 cm long, at the edges. Marked with notches and a midrib As with all Marchantiales the underside of the thallus is provided with so-called ventral scales, the fountain liverwort there are three different forms: large along the midrib, rounded on the front edge of the thallus and long, narrow on the remaining bottom. Shape and combination of the belly scales are a taxonomic feature for determining the Art

On the thallus can be found next to the recognizable with the naked eye pores round the brood cup, in which small, flattened propagules swim. If this is washed out from the incubator mug or beaten, they germinate in the new location and enable the plant to the vegetative propagation.

The unicellular rhizoids, with which the plant anchored in the ground, can be more than 1 cm long, so that they represent the longest cells in the class of liverworts ever dar.

The resulting from the fused gametes sporophytes consist of tiny capsules that sit on the bottom of a stemmed, upright Thallusasts, which has the shape of a 9 11- rayed star. Up to 7 million spores are thereby formed per plant. The fountain is dioecious liverwort.

Dissemination

The fountain liverwort is the most widely used and one of the most common types of liverworts. It occurs worldwide on all continents from the tropics to Arctic regions. For its prosperity neither certain nor light soil conditions are relevant, only a certain level of humidity is important. The plant is also known as heavy metal- resistant.

System

In addition to the type of the two subspecies exist

• Marchantia polymorpha ssp. ruderalis Bischl. & Boiss. - Dub.
• Marchantia polymorpha ssp. montivagans Bischl. & Boiss. - Dub.

Use

Well liverwort was given because of its similarity with animal livers earlier as a remedy for liver diseases and tuberculosis, hence its name to the entire class. As such, it has become out of use. In recent years it has been shown that liverworts have a strong fungicidal activity and thus can be successfully used for the treatment of skin and nail fungi. It is reported that the effect is greater by a multiple than that of the commercially available fungicides.

Models

Sporangium

Gemma

Nesting cup with leaf buds

Archegonium