Specimen #13 Veilwort

Figure 1. Leaves of Pallavicinia lyellii

Figure 2. Cell close up

Figure 3. Costa close up

Name: Pallavicinia lyellii

Common name: Veilwort

Family: Pallaviciniaceae

Collection date: September 14, 2015

Habitat: Dead log

Location: Hiram, OH

Description: "Thalli prostate in thin patches, pale green, thalli 2-6cm long and 4-5cm wide with a central strand. On wet banks along streams and in swamps, Minnesota to Newfoundland South to Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Luisiana."

Key used: Concard, H.S.(1956). How to Know the Mosses and Liverworts. WMC. Brown Company.

Keying steps:

1b) Plants Thalloid or, if with stems and leaves, the larger leaves in two rows on the stem and a third row of leaves often present on the underside of the stem, never on the upper side. Rhizoids unicellular, sporophyte short lived.

4b) Plants thalloid or leafy with more than one chloroplast per cell

5a) Plant strongly flattened, thalloid, without distinction between stem and leaf.
6a) Plants with a translucent or transparent thallus, internal tissue homogenous; rhizoids all smooth on internal wall; sporophyte with capsule dividing regularly into 4 valves or dehiscing irregularly and retained in a scam-like structure
7b) Thalli ribbon-shapped, not covered on upper surface with pear-shaped sacs; capsules regularly splitting into four lobes, elater present..pg. 238 Metzgeriales

Metzgeriales
1b) Plants thallouse of shallowly lobed
2b) Margins of thallus wavy or even, but not shallowly lobed
3a) Midrib wel defined, bulging like a cord along lower side of plant, rest of thallus only 1 cell thick
4b) Plant 3-4mm wide, often irregularly wavy; sex organs on oppressed along midrib
5a) midrib with a central strand of small, thick-walled cells. 

Links:
http://www.bbsfieldguide.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdfs/liverworts/Pallavicinia_lyellii.pdf
http://hiddenforest.co.nz/bryophytes/liverworts/leafy/pallaviciniaceae/palla01.htm