Greater copperwort  (Cephaloziella nicholsonii)

Learn about the scientific name of this species and how it fits into the tree of life at Nature Navigator.

Biology

Liverworts and mosses do not produce flowers but they can manufacture their own food by photosynthesis, unlike fungi which obtain their food source from another organism, alive or dead. Most liverworts reproduce by spores, in a similar way to fungi. They can also reproduce vegetatively and greater copperwort seems to use this method exclusively as no spore capsules have ever been observed. A liverwort can regenerate when the plant is damaged or parts of it decay. They can also produce new growth on healthy parts of the plant structure. A plant cell divides and forms a bud-like growth which then turns into a leafy shoot or stem, while still attached to the main body of the plant.

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