Riccardia multifida
Marchantiophyta
Riccardia multifida (Aneuraceae)
Comb Liverwort
Infrequent
Distinguishing Features
The infrequent R. multifida is a species that thrives in areas with constant moisture, such as clay river banks and seeping hillslopes, where it grows in deep green patches of regularly-branched thallus segments 1-3 cm long by 1 mm wide. The diagnostic feature for this species is the thin wing of tissue (1 cell wide by 2-3 cells thick) that surrounds the thallus. Under the microscope, oil bodies will be mostly absent in the surficial cells and the wing should be obvious in cross section.
Similar species
No other Riccardia has the thin wing of tissue surrounding the thallus. In order to see this, you will need a hand lens. Alternately, mounting the thallus on a slide should also show this feature.
Habitat
Moist to wet, shady humus, rock outcrops, cliffs, boulders, swamps, seepage areas, streambanks, waterfall spray zones, and occasionally decayed wood in the lowland and montane zones
Associated species
Fissidens sp., Pellia neesiana