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Species Review

Marchantia polymorpha, common liverwort

Written
May, 1993
Contributors
Robin F. Matthews - 1st Author

Matthews, Robin F. 1993. Marchantia polymorpha, common liverwort. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/species-reviews/marpol

DOI
10.2737/feis-species-review-marpol

AbbreviationCommon NameScientific NameClassificationStatus
Plants
MARPOLcommon liverwortMarchantia polymorphaLife Form: Plants/Bryophyte
Kingdom: Plantae
Class: Liverwort
Order: Marchantiales
Family: Marchantiaceae
Genus: Marchantia		Fed. Protected: No
Nativity: Native
Invasiveness: Noninvasive

A photo of green lichens growing on rocks with small, tree-shaped "sprouts".
Photo Credit: Photo by Hunter Jackson, iNaturalist.org, some rights reserved.
Common lichen growing in Alberta, Canada (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Taxonomy

The currently accepted scientific name of common liverwort is Marchantia polymorpha L.; it is in the class Hepaticae [16,34]. The following varieties are recognized based on ecological and morphological characteristics [13,14]:

  • Marchantia polymorpha L. var. polymorpha
  • Marchantia polymorpha L. var. aquatica Nees—often submerged with the thallus erect or suberect
  • Marchantia polymorpha L. var. alpestris Nees—most often in dense compact patches in alpine regions with prostrate thallus

Synonyms

  • Marchantia aquatica (Nees) Burgeff

Other Common Names

umbrella liverwort

General Distribution

Common liverwort is the most widely distributed hepatic in the world [47]. It is a cosmopolitan species that occurs from tropical to arctic regions [6,14,42,47].

States and Provinces

  • United States: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WI, WY
  • Canada: AB, BC, MB, NB, NF, NT, NS, ON, PE, PQ, SK, YT

Site Characteristics

Common liverwort grows on a wide variety of sites within its range including cliffs, closed forests, alpine heathlands, peat bogs, minerotropic fens, springs, swamps, grasslands, and tundra [2,5,8,50]. It is most often found on moist or wet mineral soil, especially in recently burned areas [4,18,21]. Common liverwort grows best in subcalcareous soil conditions (pH 6.0) under full sunlight [42,46].

Plant Communities

Common liverwort is found in various habitats ranging from tropical forests to arctic tundra but is not a dominant or indicator species in published classification schemes.

Commonly associated species in northern North America include postfire invaders or sprouters such as willows (Salix spp.), blueberries (Vaccinium spp.), fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium), bluejoint reedgrass (Calamagrostis canadensis), sheathed cottonsedge (Eriophorum vaginatum), fire moss (Ceratodon purpurea), and other mosses (Funaria hygrometrica, Polytrichum commune, P. juniperum, P. piliferum).

Botanical Description

Common liverwort has a flat, branching form. The thallus is generally 0.8 to 4 inches (2-10 cm) long and 0.3 to 0.8 inch (7-20 mm) broad. Thalli are dichotomously branched and exhibit apical growth. Numerous rhizoids attach the gametophyte (thallus) to the soil. Smooth rhizoids penetrate the soil, while tuberculate rhizoids run horizontally along the surface of the plant. Common liverwort is dioecious [5,8,9,34].

Raunkiaer Life Form

  • No entry

Seasonal Development

Common liverwort gametophores appear and archegonia are ready for fertilization in early to late May [18]. Sporogonia mature and spores are released in July [18,34]. Gemmae production ceases in late spring in Michigan [27].

Regeneration Processes

Common liverwort has two alternate forms in its life cycle: a gametophytic stage and a sporophytic stage. The gametophyte propagates itself vegetatively and also produces the gametes which give rise to the sporophyte [8,9,55].

In sexual reproduction, antheridia and archegonia develop on separate plant bodies and are borne on stalked antheridiophores and archegoniophores, respectively. Fertilization takes place prior to elongation of the stalk, and a sporophyte is formed. Spores with hygroscopic elaters (slender threads that twist and coil as they dry and propel spores into the air) subsequently develop and are released [8]. As many as 7 million spores may be formed on each plant [55].

Vegetative reproduction may occur as a result of fragmentation or gemma cup production. In fragmentation, new plants are formed when older plant parts die at the fork of a branch of a thallus. The two branches then become separate individuals [8]. Gametophytes produce propagative structures called gemma cups. Each gemma gives rise to numerous gemmae that are released when the cup fills with water. Gemmae that are transported to favorable sites form a pair of young plants [9,27].

Successional Status

Obligate Initial Community Species

In central Canada, common liverwort is a primary invader of marshes and edges of small ponds that are associated with fluctuating water tables [12].

Common liverwort mats can interfere with the establishment of seedlings of other vegetation [22].

Immediate Fire Effects

No entry.

Postfire Regeneration Strategy

  • Secondary colonizer - off-site spores

Fire Adaptations

Common liverwort rapidly invades burned areas by light wind-borne spores [19,39,45]. Exposed mineral soil and high lime concentrations present after a severe fire provide favorable conditions for gametophyte establishment [28,50,51,52].

Plant Response to Fire

Common liverwort is widely recognized as an initial or early invader of burned sites [7,17,24,36]. It exhibits dramatic growth following fire and in some cases attains 100 percent cover [25,29,33,37]. Common liverwort dominates the early moss-herb stage after a fire but does not persist through subsequent stages of succession [21,35,46,48]. In Alaska and Canada, common liverwort colonies are not present in prefire communities [40,41,53,54].

In northeastern Minnesota, cover of common liverwort on burned jack pine (Pinus banksiana)-black spruce (Picea mariana) sites increased until postfire year 3, but it was replaced by lichens (Peltigera spp.) by postfire year 5 [1].

Common liverwort produced large spreading mats on thin mineral soil and charred humus after a severe fire in New Jersey. The mats persisted for 2 to 3 years, then were replaced by shrubs and forbs [49].

In interior Alaska, common liverwort found in burned white spruce (Picea glauca) and mesic black spruce types had the following frequency and cover percentages [21]:

StageYears since fireWhite spruce
frequency (%)		White spruce
cover (%)		Black spruce
frequency (%)		Black spruce
cover (%)
Newly burned0-10000
Moss-herb1-515168
Tall shrub-sapling3(5)-3000122
Dense tree
(white spruce)		26-4500——
Dense tree
(black spruce)		30-55——00

After the 1971 Wickersham Dome Fire near Fairbanks, Alaska, M. polymorpha was present in severely burned black spruce and trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) stands but was not present in adjacent unburned control plots or in lightly burned stands. Marchantia polymorpha attained its highest frequency the third year after the fire when it reached 5 percent and 45 percent on black spruce and trembling aspen sites, respectively. Biomass production in grams per square meter was as follows [52]:

YearBlack spruceAspen
19730.10.5
19740.869.6

For information on prescribed fire and postfire response of many plant species, including common liverwort, see Hamilton's Research Papers (Hamilton 2006a, Hamilton 2006b) and these Research Project Summaries:

  • The effects of experimental fires in an Alaskan black spruce/feather moss community
  • Forest floor and plant responses to experimental fires in an Alaskan black spruce/feather moss community

Fire Regimes

For fire regime information, search FEIS for this species by entering the species name on the Advanced Search page and selecting “Fire Regime” as the publication type.

Fire Management Considerations

Common liverwort revegetates areas where mineral soil has been exposed. Colonies aid in the renewal of the humus and prepare the soil for the establishment of other vegetation [49].

Federal Status

None

Other Status

No entry.

Importance to Wildlife and Livestock

No entry.

Value for Rehabilitation or Restoration of Disturbed Sites

Invasion and formation of common liverwort mats after fire helps to prevent soil erosion [43,44].

In southeastern British Columbia, common liverwort colonized mineral soil exposed by skid trails [38].

Common liverwort has a high lead tolerance and may be an indicator of high lead concentrations [10]. It also tolerates other heavy metals [14,30,32]. Gemmalings grow in lead concentrations to 400 parts per million (p/m) and zinc concentrations to 100 p/m. Copper suppresses growth but chelated copper complexed with ethylene-diaminetetraacetic acid is tolerated at high levels [15].

Other Uses

Historically, common liverwort was thought to be an antidote for diseases of the liver and tuberculosis due to the fact that its form and texture resemble that of an animal liver [8].

Other Management Considerations

Dichlorophen kills common liverwort [11].

Table A1— Forest and range ecosystems, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) physiographic regions, Kuchler plant associations, Society for American Foresters (SAF) forest cover types, and Society for Rangeland Management (SRM) rangeland cover types in which this species occurs.

Forest and Range Ecosystems (Garrison et al. 1977)

  • FRES10 White - red - jack pine
  • FRES11 Spruce - fir
  • FRES12 Longleaf - slash pine
  • FRES13 Loblolly - shortleaf pine
  • FRES14 Oak - pine
  • FRES15 Oak - hickory
  • FRES16 Oak - gum - cypress
  • FRES17 Elm - ash - cottonwood
  • FRES18 Maple - beech - birch
  • FRES19 Aspen - birch
  • FRES20 Douglas-fir
  • FRES21 Ponderosa pine
  • FRES22 Western white pine
  • FRES23 Fir - spruce
  • FRES24 Hemlock - Sitka spruce
  • FRES25 Larch
  • FRES26 Lodgepole pine
  • FRES27 Redwood
  • FRES28 Western hardwoods
  • FRES31 Shinnery
  • FRES32 Texas savanna
  • FRES33 Southwestern shrubsteppe
  • FRES34 Chaparral - mountain shrub
  • FRES35 Pinyon - juniper
  • FRES36 Mountain grasslands
  • FRES37 Mountain meadows
  • FRES38 Plains grasslands
  • FRES39 Prairie
  • FRES41 Wet grasslands
  • FRES42 Annual grasslands
  • FRES44 Alpine

BLM Physiographic Regions (Bernard and Brown 1977)

  • 1  Northern Pacific Border
  • 2  Cascade Mountains
  • 3  Southern Pacific Border
  • 4  Sierra Mountains
  • 5  Columbia Plateau
  • 6  Upper Basin and Range
  • 7  Lower Basin and Range
  • 8  Northern Rocky Mountains
  • 9  Middle Rocky Mountains
  • 10  Wyoming Basin
  • 11  Southern Rocky Mountains
  • 12  Colorado Plateau
  • 13  Rocky Mountain Piedmont
  • 14  Great Plains
  • 15  Black Hills Uplift
  • 16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands

Kuchler Plant Associations (Kuchler 1964)

  • Widely distributed, occurs in most types within its range.

SAF Cover Types (Eyre 1980)

  • Widely distributed, occurs in most types within its range.

SRM Rangeland Cover Types (Shiflet 1994)

  • No entry

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3. Bernard, Stephen R.; Brown, Kenneth F. 1977. Distribution of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians by BLM physiographic regions and A.W. Kuchler's associations for the eleven western states. Tech. Note 301. Denver, CO: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. 169 p. [434]

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32. Lepp, Nicholas W.; Hockenhull, Yvonne. 1983. Growth responses of Marchantia polymorpha gemmalings in relation to concentration and chemical form of applied nickel. Bryologist. 86(4): 342-346. [20481]

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52. Viereck, L. A.; Dyrness, C. T. 1979. Ecological effects of the Wickersham Dome Fire near Fairbanks, Alaska. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-90. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. 71 p. [6392]

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