Marchantia: Learn about Marchantia

Learn about Marchantia, a genus of liverworts with about 65 species, terrestrial and cosmopolitan in distribution. Find out its external and internal features, sexual and asexual reproduction, and alternation of generation with diagrams. Thallus organization, morphology, anatomy and reproduction Thallus organization (External morphology): The thallus is deep green and provided with a midrib. […] It is one of the most common liverworts found in moist, shady, cool areas with abundant moisture. It grows in large mats. Damp soil, streams, springs, wet rocks are the favorable places for its growth. There are about 65 species of Marchantia and are found all over the world. Marchantia is the most prominent genus in the family Marchantiaceae of the order Marchantiales. They prefer to grow in moist and shady places like wet open woodlands, banks of streams, wood rocks, or on shaded stub rocks. A few species grow (e.g., Marchantia polymorpha) as the pioneers in burnt forest soil. In Marchantia, the gametophytic plant body is the dominant phase of the life cycle, like that of Riccia.