[1] "no GBIF data to display"Pellia columbiana
Marchantiophyta
Pellia columbiana (Pelliaceae)
None
Rare
Distinguishing Features
Reported from only a handful of low elevation wet sites along the coast, Pellia columbiana is a large simple thalloid liverwort (to 10+ cm long, > 1cm wide) that appears in most respects like the other local species of the genus. Typically a dark, mottled green, it has a thickened vein-like region running down the middle of the thallus that gradulally tapers into the thin, undulating margins that are one cell thick. The diagnostic features of this species are somewhat hard to come by and must be looked for on female plants: when fertile, the ring of tissue surrounding the developing archegonia and sporophytes ("pseudoperianth") is incised, tattered & toothed (see image).
Similar species
Species of Moerckia have large, simple thalli, but are typically adorned with abundant scales on the upper surface. Such scales are absent in Pellia. Calycularia is similair, but has prominent pink-purple scales that can be seen with a hand lens on the underside of the thallus; these are likewise absent in P. columbiana. Apopellia alpicola is a subalpine and alpine species that has a similarly dissected tube surrounding its developing sporophyte, but is unlikely to be found in the same low-elevation environments of P. columbiana. P. epiphylla has antheridia and archegonia on the same plant (monoicous); in P. columbiana they are on seperate plants (dioicous). It is most likely to be confused with similairly dioicous P. neesiana, but in that species, the flap of tissue surrounding the developing archegonia and sporophytes has a smooth outer margin compared to the incised, tattered & toothed margin of this structure in P. columbiana.
Habitat
Moist to wet, shady mineral soil, streambanks, and ditches in the lowland zone
Associated species
Rhizomnium glabrescens, Rhizomnium magnifolium, Kindbergia praelonga, Hookeria lucens