''Mylia taylorii'', or Taylor's flapwort, is a species of leafy

liverwort The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of g ...

Description

''Mylia taylorii'' forms dense mats or hemispherical colonial growths of vertical shoots which have a swollen, slimy appearance when damp. The shoots are yellow-green tinged with brown or red, 3 – 8 cm tall. The leaves are up to 2.4 mm long and become close and overlapping towards the shoot tips. The rounded leaves have an

entire Entire may refer to: * Entire function, a function that is holomorphic on the whole complex plane * Entire (animal), an indication that an animal is not neutered * Entire (botany) This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of ...

margin, are attached to the stems obliquely and are

succubous Succubous is a manner in which the leaves of a liverwort overlap. If one were to look down from above (dorsal side) on a plant where the leaf attachment is ''succubous'', the upper edge of each leaf would be covered by the next leaf along the ste ...

. Small narrow underleaves are present. Asexual reproduction occurs by gemmae can be found on the margins of the upper leaves. ''Mylia taylorii'' is

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

but fertile plants are uncommon in Britain. The dark brown capsule is

ovoid An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one or ...

globose A sphere () is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three-dimensional space.. That given point is the ce ...

Distribution

''Mylia taylorii'' is found in mountainous districts of northern Europe, the mountains of Continental Europe, Greenland and eastern North America from Newfoundland to Tennessee. There are scattered records for western North America and eastern Asia. ''Mylia taylorii'' is probably most common in Great Britain and Scandinavia.

Ecology and conservation

Typically grows on peaty banks, bases of trees, rock faces, screes and open woodland in high rainfall climates. According to Ratcliffe's account of oceanic bryophytes bordering the Atlantic, ''M. taylorii'' is classified as a Western British species.Ratcliffe, D.A. (1968). An Ecological Account Of Atlantic Bryophytes in the British Isles. New Phytol 67: 365 The distribution of ''M. taylorii'' is limited by a requirement for at least 120-140 wet days per year. In Britain it is often found in the widespread derelict forests of sessile oak (

Quercus petraea ''Quercus petraea'', commonly known as the sessile oak, Cornish oak, Irish Oak or durmast oak, is a species of oak tree native to most of Europe and into Anatolia and Iran. The sessile oak is the national tree of Ireland, and an unofficial emble ...

) and downy birch (

Betula pubescens ''Betula pubescens'' (syn. ''Betula alba''), commonly known as downy birch and also as moor birch, white birch, European white birch or hairy birch, is a species of deciduous tree, native and abundant throughout northern Europe and northern Asia ...

), managed as poor sheep pasture with scattered trees, in the uplands of Western Britain. ''Mylia taylorii'' is consistently calcifugous in its choice of substrate.

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References

External links