Mylia taylorii
Marchantiophyta
Mylia taylorii (Myliaceae)
Taylor’s Flapwort
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Frequent
Distinguishing Features
Running a gamut of colours from dark green to bright yellows and radiant reds, the wide-spreading leafy shoots (up to 5 mm wide) of Mylia taylorii are a common sight on decaying organic matter in high-precipitation regions. The simple round leaves appear in nearly an opposite arrangement, evenly spaced down the shoot but tightly converging near the tip so as to appear like a set of nested lips. Asexual reproductive bodies ("gemmae") are frequent and brightly coloured yellow and red, while underleaves are simple and elongate.
Similar species
In the pantheon of unlobed leafy liverworts, M. taylorii is distinguished from species of Cryptocolea, Syzygiella, Jungermannia and Solenostoma by its prominent underleaf, a feature absent or minute in those genera. Gyrothyra underwoodiana has the same widespreading and subopposite leave arrangement, but its underleaf is two-lobed and the undersides of the stem have recurrent purple patches in contrast to the to M. taylorii where such patches are absent and the underleaves are unlobed. Odontoschisma species can have a similair leaf form and arrangement, but they are usually less than 1 mm wide and 1 cm long and the leaves themselves are very concave. M. taylorii is a much bigger plant and its leaves are plane, not concave. Nardia has shoots that can show the nested lip arrangement of rounded leaves seen in M. taylorii, but it never has gemmae and its underleaf, while similair in shape, is attached to the base of the lateral leaves. In M. taylorii, the underleaves are free from the lateral leaves and gemmae are very common. Mylia taylorii has leaves wider than long with rounded leaf tips topped by bright yellow-red gemmae, while those of M. anomala are longer than wide, with somewhat pointed leaf tips topped by light green gemmae.
Habitat
Moist to wet humus, rock outcrops, boulders, bogs, peatlands, seepage areas, decayed wood, waterfall spray zones, and rarely tree bases in the lowland and montane zones
Associated species
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