Gemma Cups!

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Claire and Briar camped overnight with us so we now had the whole day ahead for fun!

Briar and Claire were ready to look for treasures!
This was the first treasure, a foliose Parmatrema lichen!
Off we drove to see the Flower Park Trails. And the Lincoln Bridge leads you to the trail.
A beautiful small bridge!
A view of the creek from the bridge. Hmmm, I saw a way to get down closer to the creek level. 😉
Down I went!
Dueling photography!
Something interesting near the edge!
A thalloid liverwort! The little cups are called gemmae. The receptacles form on the gametophyte body for asexual reproduction. It is thought that tiny buds inside the cup separate from parent to become new plants when water splashes in them. One of the most common thalloid liverwort genus with gemmae is Marchantia. The species Marchantia polymorpha hugs areas on moist, usually neutral or basic soils or on wet rock, such as along a perennial stream. However listed on Wikipedia are 27 species. So I have no real clue if it was a Marchantia polymorpha or one of the other 26 species.

A fine start to the day!

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Keep looking!

The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know

5 Comments

  3. It is a treasure! Beautiful bridge and creek. Wonderful gemmae cups! And you can see all the pores on the thallus too. What a find!

    Reply

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