Family SCAPANIACEAE

Microhabitat

This species is found in moist, shady places, most commonly near running water or even under water. In Stanley Park it can be found in puddles and ditches that are full of water, as well as on logs, stumps, and rocks near the water.

Distribution

Specimen maps from the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Moss Index show specimens collected in North America, Europe, and Japan, as well as published occurences of the species in floras of China, the former USSR, and Mexico. Schuster adds Tunisia, the Canary Islands, the Azores, and Korea. This species is widespread and abundant in the northern hemisphere.

Scapania undulata’s nearly aquatic habitat
Photo Credit: Yan Zhuang

Click on thumbnails to view photos

Morphology

Scapania undulata is a leafy liverwort that is highly variable in colour, being green in deep shade but developing reddish tints when exposed to sunlight. The branching frequency and presence or absence of teeth on the leaf margins are also variable depending on the amounts of light and water in the vicinity. The leaves are bilobed-complicate and keeled, with the ventral lobe larger than the dorsal lobe. The ventral lobe is prominently long-decurrent and succubous to transversely inserted. Gametophores are typically 5 mm across and 4 cm long, but they can vary from as little as 2 mm wide and 1 cm long to as much as 1 cm wide and 10 cm long.

Key identifying features

Most leafy liverworts with bilobed leaves have lobes on top and and lobules underneath. In bilobed leaves, the lobe is the bigger portion and the lobule is smaller. Scapania is one of the few liverworts that has lobules on top of its lobes so you can see them from the top. Since it is a common and widespread species, if you see this feature, the chances are good you’re looking at Scapania undulata. Its generally rounded leaves distinguish it from Diplophyllum, another local genus whose lobules are also on top, but whose leaves are narrower than long. If you see a leafy liverwort in Stanley Park that is about the size of Porella navicularis but its lobules are bigger than its lobes, you probably have Scapania undulata.

Interesting notes

A few studies in the 1990's found that Scapania undulata has the ability to concentrate heavy metals in its tissues. It has been shown to withstand two weeks of exposure to sewage from a chemical plant, and it is able to take up and concentrate cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury, and lead. Because of this it may prove useful for biological purification of contaminated water.
The name Scapania is derived from the Greek term for a spade, and refers to the flattened perianth. The specific epithet undulata refers to the wavy margins of the leaves.

Selected References

Schuster, R.M. 1969. Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America, Vol II. Columbia University Press, New York and London.

Conard, H.S., and P.L. Redfearn, Jr. 1979. How to know the mosses and liverworts, 2nd ed. Wm. C. Brown Company, Dubuque, Iowa.

By Gillian Gile

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© 2006 Department of Botany, University of British Columbia