Perhaps one reason why leafy liverworts might be excluded from biology and
botany textbooks is that there are few good color photos available. There
seems to be a shortage of certain types of photos. For example, color
plant physiology photos seem in short supply because current
biology/botany texts use a lot of drawings or black and white photos in
the plant physiology sections.
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David R. Hershey
Snail mail: 6700 Belcrest Road #112, Hyattsville, MD 20782-1340
Adjunct Professor, Biology/Horticulture Department
Prince George's Community College, Largo, MD 20772-2199
Email: dh321 at pgstumail.pg.cc.md.us
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On 24 Aug 1996, Mary Barkworth wrote:
> This summer it came to my attention that some introductory biology texts
> treat Marchantia as representative of all liverworts; some fail to even
> mention that there are other genera. Given that most liverworts are
> "leafy", this seems absurd - and reprehensible. It is as if a grass or
> sedge were used as the basis for describing flowering plants. At AIBS I
> mentioned my disgust to a few publishers of such books, all of whom politely
> said that they would take the matter up with their authors. Botany books
> are more likely, but not guaranteed, to mention, occasionally even portray,
> a representative of the leafy liwerworts.
>> A colleague explained that Marchantia is large and easy to grow. I agree it
> is large overall, but the sporophyte itself is very small and the
> morphological likeness of Marchantia to mosses is, at best obscure.
>> Question; Does anyone know how to cultivate leafy liverworts, any leafy
> liverwort, in a greenhouse? It would, of course, be highly desirable if it
> were known how to induce production of the sporophyte (other than making
> sure that both sexes are present and growing in proximity to each other.
>>>> Mary Barkworth
> Intermountain Herbarium
> Utah State University
> Logan, Utah 84322-5305
>>
