# Liverwort (tiny bright green) pics



## candm519 (Oct 15, 2006)

This is a dish full of a tiny bright green liverwort that originally popped up in my big tank. 
I divided a piece less than an inch diameter into 6 or 8 pieces, and pressed them into damp sphagnum.

In the middle you can see a short dark green moss that has volunteered after a while in every culture I've made, and seems to eventually take over. 
(And this liverwort starts growing in every 'pure' culture I've tried to make of the moss.) 
It has been easy to propagate and spread in a terrarium setting.









Instead of the crawling flat thalli typical of many liverworts, these grow more like cabbage, the short leaves vertical and almost stacked up on each other. 









See all the babies? I believe spores are being spread from leaf edges all over the surface by sticking to the tiny isopod-like crawlers I've noticed in all my cultures, whether on clean damp potting soil or damp sphagnum.









This is as close as my camera can get. The little rods along edges are 'elaters', cool little structures that swell and shrink with humidity changes, and help push the spores out and away. 









This is all asexual reproduction. I haven't found any sexual structures so far, which seem fairly important in identifying species.


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

Awesome pics! This is great. What kind of lighting are you putting them under?


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## Geckoguy (Dec 10, 2008)

Thats pretty cool I just found something like that starting to grow in one of my vivs; hope it spreads like this.


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## thedude (Nov 28, 2007)

thats so awesome looking! ive had liverwort pop up before, but it didnt look like that. very cool...


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## Deli (Jun 24, 2008)

Oooo... I'd love to get some of that fpr my hexagon viv (once its set up, that is).


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## candm519 (Oct 15, 2006)

I grew it under daylight fluorescent lights, some coiled, others straight -- and pushed toward the back so I don't keep messing with it. Water beads on it when misted, but it seems to need to stay humid (i.e. covered) on top and damp but not soggy underneath. The only time I've lost some is when I forgot to seal the lid tight and it dried out.


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## AaronAcker (Aug 15, 2007)

question is, are you selling it yet!? lol


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## driftfc (May 2, 2006)

im with him^^ i want some bad!!!


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## Nicholas (Mar 16, 2010)

It's amazing the $#!% you can sell on dendroboard...


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

For those interested I have a similar plant, and discussed it in this thread...
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/plants/57623-best-moss-2.html

Mine appears to be a similar but slightly different species. A little smaller and does not get the ruffle type growth pattern. I've used my current amount to seed new tanks and grow out tanks. Hopefully in a few months I'll be able to offer a good number of starter clumps. Mine seems to tolerate dry conditions fairly well but also do well in humid spots...When dry it stays green for a long time, weeks if not months but doesn't spread or grow much then resumes doing so when wet. It isn't dead till it turns brown and I've only seen that happen after more then a month of no misting. 

You can break larger pieces into very small ones usually when seeding new tanks, though I usually try to stick to dime sized portions. The one weakness I've seen with mine is in extremely saturated areas with little to no airflow it sometimes appears to degrade or get overwhelmed by fungus or something...I'm not really sure whats going on but usually the larger the piece the better the chance of surviving. In more normal viv conditions though its practically idiot proof. It still holds up to saturated conditions better then most terrestrial mosses I've seen. Exceptions may be some of the Christmas and Taiwan type mosses or similar used in aquariums.

Maybe we should trade candm519...If yours favors wet conditions a lil more then mine and vise versa maybe together they'd be the ultimate viv "moss"....though actually liverworts of course. Or we could at least see who's would win out in a fight for viv floor space


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## ladyfaile15 (Apr 22, 2009)

i would like some too!
lol 

jamie


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## lgabrick (Sep 8, 2010)

I have been pulling different liverworts and mosses from my yard and seeing how they do in my vivarium. I have had much more luck with my mosses. When one of my mosses gets to big I mix it up in a blender with some beer (because it is acidic) and put the moss slurry in my yard where I want it, and sure enough it grows the moss every time. I have never tried it with liverworts. It might work if you had a lot of spores in the mix.


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