Anthelia julacea
Marchantiophyta
Anthelia julacea (Antheliaceae)
Alpine Silverwort
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Locally frequent
Distinguishing Features
Easily overlooked in out of the way habitats, Anthelia julacea grows as tiny (<.5 mm wide) overlapping shoots packed into silvery, horizontal turfs on bare rock in areas of late snow and seasonal flushes. With a hand lens, you should see three rows of tightly overlapping, sharply and evenly two-lobed leaves divided to about 1/2 their length and fringed with white edges against a darker inner leaf. This species is impossible to confirm without microscopic examination of fertile shoots.
Similar species
Anthelia’s small size, dense cushions, silvery palour, evenly bilobed leaves and affinity for bereft bedrock only overlaps with species in the genus Gymnomitrion. Plants of that genus often bear acutely bilobed, white and tightly overlapping leaves, but they are typically wider (>>.5 mm) and are dissected to only 1/3rd their length. They also lack the prominent third row of leaves seen in Anthelia. Differentiation of the two regional species of Anthelia requires the presence of fertile plants in a population. When present, the androecia and gynoecia are on seperate plants in A. julaceae, while in A. juratzkana, they are on seperate branches of the same shoot. If sporophytes are present, it should be noted that the spiral bands of the elaters in A. juratzkana are <3 um wide, while those of A. julacea are >3 um wide.
Habitat
Moist to wet, acidic humus, cliffs, rock outcrops, boulders, fellfields, boggy areas, streambanks, snowbeds, seepage areas, and tundra in the upper montane, subalpine, and alpine zones
Associated species
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