Even Scalewort
A liverwort which, from a distance, looks like a green stain on a tree trunk.
Up close, it’s a mixture of beautifully arranged round leaves and untidy tube-like growths.
I think it usually grows on trees by water. I’ve seen it on Ash but also Scots Pine.
An unusual feature are the rhizoids growing on the undersides of the leaves.
The leaves have two lobes, the small one tucked underneath (just about visible in the picture above). There are also some “sub-branches” (below).
Also interesting are the male parts, the little tubes (perianths). Looking closely, I saw brown nut-like things hanging from some of them. I think these are the male bracts mentioned in the book.
The book says it’s also quite common to find gemmae on the edges of the leaves. I didn’t see that at Abernethy, but this photo from Dunkeld (February) might show them.
I learnt a new word – “incubous” – which means that the upper edge of a leaf overlaps the next leaf on the stem.
Definitely worth a closer look.
Pictures taken at Dunkeld and Abernethy, February and November 2020.
Learning about Mosses 
Hello! Great pictures! However, perianths are not male parts. A perianth is actually part of a liverwort’s gynoecium (female reproductive system), and contains the archegonium or multiple archegonia – female reproductive organs. The “brown nut-like things” coming out of the perianths are sporophytes: the liverwort’s children, basically. Specifically, the visible brown part is the capsule. If you look closer, you can see that they also have a short stalk (seta). The capsule, after some time, opens into 4 halves and spores fly out of it, and afterwards new liverworts grow from the spores. Male bracts of Radula complanata look completely different.
Just thought you would like to know this! 🙂
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Dear Karina
Thank you so much for this! I obviously got really confused…I’ll have to look more closely at Radula complanata this year and see if I can find those male bracts. Thanks for putting me right, and for all the additional information. I’ll update the blog post soon.
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You’re welcome!
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